You're listening to Key Life Fellowships pulpit ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. If you would like more
information regarding Key Life or to speak with one of our
pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Aren't you thankful this morning that the words of that song are
true? That God has loved us so much
that he sent His Son to die for those of us who have would just
trust in Him by faith, and He invites us to lean on Him.
I know what many say, right? Christianity is just a crutch.
I need something to prop me up. Christianity's just.
A crutch. So I can't live without Christ.
Christianity is just a crutch. I can't stand without Christ.
But don't you think that's just a crutch?
I can't walk without Christ. I need Christ.
And yet he and his love invites us to fellowship with him, to
commune with him. And it's OK because?
We're all going to go through those times where we.
Need to lean on something? He invites us to lean on Him, to
lean not on our own understanding, but in all our
ways. Acknowledge Him and He will make
our paths straight. Thank you Jesus, that we can
truly lean on you, dependent upon nothing in ourselves,
nothing of ourselves, but dependent upon you.
You have your Bibles. If you would turn to First
Timothy chapter 6 as we continue our journey through the Pastoral
Epistle of First Timothy, looking at biblical ministers
and biblical ministry, at the risk of causing all of you to go
into a panic, this morning we will be covering verses 3 all
the way to verse 10 today. I know last week we covered only
two verses and it took us a minute.
Those who were in the first service are thankful that they
came to the first service because we have to get out.
For those of you in the late. Service we don't have to get out
and so I intend on going through all of these verses this
morning. Only kidding.
It won't take any longer than the normal tumor being removed
from your brain. When we look at this, and I want
you to see that this is a topic that is not addressed nearly
enough, I want us to look at the dangerous reality of false
teachers. Paul is going to point Timothy's
attention now, in this third verse, back to false teachers
who are leading people astray in the church.
Now this is 2000 years ago and there was a problem with false
teachers infiltrating the church.
Let me just tell you this, it is more so a problem today.
False Teachers false. Teaching false.
Ideology. And to many they would say this.
Is it really that important that we should take a whole Sunday
morning and address this? Yes, it is very important.
It is that important. I'll tell you how important it
is. Out of the 27 New Testament
books, 19 of them explicitly mention or warn about.
False teachers, false prophets, or false doctrine?
Some of them? All three.
Three out of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they all
record the Lord's warnings. That one of them we read a
moment ago in our scripture reading.
They record the Lord's warnings himself about false.
Teachers and false prophets. How they come dressed as sheep,
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves in acts.
Upon Paul's departure from a group of believers there, he
knew this and he warned them. He said when I leave.
These ravenous, vicious wolves are going to come, these false
teachers are going to come in, and they're going to try to
destroy that which has been built upon the word of God and
sound teaching and upon the gospel.
Paul also doesn't shy away from false teaching and false
teachers and addressing those properly in his epistles.
Paul addresses the subject in Romans, First Corinthians,
Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians, First Timothy. As we're looking here today,
also in Second Timothy and his pastoral epistle to Titus, it's
very important to Paul that the church be warned about false
teachers and false. Teaching.
Other epistles, which would include teaching about false
teachers, would be Second Peter. We're going to talk a lot about
Second Peter's Presley chapter 2 today.
First John. John and his epistle there.
That first epistle of John, he teaches against false teaching
and teachers. Second John, he does the same
there. Jude.
The brother of Jesus, he says, I wanted to write to you about the
salvation that we have. He was excited about Christ and
the Gospel and he said, but I can't because I need to
encourage you to contend for the faith.
Why? Because there were false
teachers who had crept into the church.
In the Revelation, the end of your Bible, Jesus gives John 7
letters to seven churches in Asia Minor during his day.
And in those letters to the seven churches, Jesus warns
against false teaching and against false teachers.
And in fact, Jesus even uses strong terminology.
When he talked about the heresy of the Nicolaitans, he said I
hate it. He hasn't changed his mind about
the subject. So something that many do not.
Ever or very rarely give any thought to the New Testament
explicitly warns against. As a church, we can't ignore it.
We can't get to this passage of Scripture and say, you know
what? This is probably best.
If we jump over this and ignore it because it makes people
uncomfortable and it bothers some people, we have to address
it head on. We're going to do that.
We're going to explore the dangerous reality of false
teachers, those who distort or who dismantle the word of God
for their own purposes, their own agendas, and in doing so,
they exploit weak and ignorant people.
And it's a very dangerous tool in the hand of Satan.
We must be warned this morning because the majority of popular
teachings and popular teachers of our day, I make no apology in
saying this, The majority of those teachers and teachings in
what we know as modern Christianity are unbiblical at
best. And we need to be warned of the
dangers of this unbiblical teaching because not only does
it lead to destruction for those who are teaching these false
ideologies, but it leads to the destruction of those who are
following them. So as we open the Word of God
today, my prayer is that the Word of God would teach us all
that we need to know, to identify these dangerous
teachers, to discern them, and to safeguard against them as a
church and as individual. I wish I could be with you all
the time, but I can't. I wish I could actually take
your remote control away from you or take those religious
stations off of your television that spew heresy and false
teaching constantly. I wish I could warn you about
every author and every teacher who is leading people astray,
just as Jesus warned that they would.
Let me just make this statement as we begin to read our text.
Anyone who settles for an unbiblical Christianity has no
Christianity at all. There is no such thing as an
unbiblical Christianity. If you can't back up everything
that you believe and the reasons as to why you believe it with
the word of God, you may have been duped already.
I pray today that God would open your eyes to see the truth, that
He would set you free from the lies of false teachers.
First Timothy chapter 6, verse three, it says this.
If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to
the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly
teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing.
He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about
words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil
suspicions, and constant friction between men of corrupt
mind who have been robbed of the truth and who think that
godliness is a means to financial gain.
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
But we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing
out of it. But if we have food and
clothing, we will be content with that.
People who want to get rich. Fall into temptation and a trap,
and in the many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men
into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of
all kinds of evil some people eager for.
Money have wandered from the. Faith and pierced themselves
with many griefs. Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you now asking that your
Spirit what teach us this morning as the Word is
proclaimed and as the Word comes forth.
God, I pray that you would give us insight and wisdom into what
we hear and what we see from the pages of Scripture today.
I pray that you would use it to sanctify Your children, that you
would by Your word make them more like Christ this morning.
Lord, I pray that it also would open the eyes of the unbeliever
today that they would see their need for Christ and that they
would see their need for Christ according to the Word of God,
not the traditions of man, not the philosophies of man.
They would see the true gospel as defined by the Scriptures.
Lord, we thank you for what you're going to do now as we
devote our time to learn your word and we may teach others to
follow in the footsteps of Christ.
And we pray all these things in Christ's name.
Amen. As I said before, Paul makes a
zero apology in addressing false teachers at any point in his
earthly ministry. And.
I want to make this clear today. I make 0 apology for doing the
same this morning from standing behind the pulpit with the Word
of God opened up. I make no apologies.
Some of you perhaps would get offended by the things that are
going to be said this morning. Let me remind you of this.
The things that I say are coming from the word of God.
If you are offended by them, you are offended by the very word of
God, not the opinions of Kirk Hall.
And so we look at this this morning and Paul not being
afraid to address these things, that begins to teach Timothy the
dangers of false teachers. And how does he do this?
He starts with the doctrines of false teachers.
And that's what I want to start with today.
He says in verse three, if anyone teaches false doctrines
and does not agree to sound instruction of our Lord Jesus
Christ and to godly teaching, what he wants us to understand,
what he wants Timothy to understand so that the believers
there in Ephesus can understand is that there really are false
teachers and they are dangerous and they need to be identified.
And one of the identifying markers is this, the doctrines
that they teach, the things that they promote from the pulpits,
from the stage. Unfortunately, so many times
that's all it is. It's just a stage.
But what are they? He makes it very clear, He
begins with this, that the teachings of these false
teachers are contrary to the Savior's teaching.
He says that they teach false doctrines and do not agree to
sound instruction that came from our Lord.
They actually in their false teaching, contradict that which
Jesus Himself, while He was here on earth during His earthly
ministry, taught from His own mouth as recorded in the Gospel.
They oppose the very teachings of Christ while claiming to be.
Christian. Now let me just help all you
folks out. If someone opposes the teachings
of Christ while claiming to be a Christian, mark this down.
That is a false. Teacher, because those who are
teaching true sound doctrine from the Word of God will never
oppose the teachings of Christ. And you say, well, Kirk, in what
manner do they oppose the teaching of Christ?
Well, I'll start with this. How about how they distort the
gospel message? They preach the gospel these
days that does not include repentance at all.
In fact, they almost teach the gospel as if repentance is
optional at some point in your Christian life.
But here's exactly what Jesus talked about in presenting the
Gospel. He says in Luke Chapter 9 verse
23, It says then he said to them, all these were people who
were saying, what must we do to be saved?
He said to them all, Whoever wants to be my disciple must
deny themselves. That's surrendered, that's
surrendered to his lordship, that's returning from yourself
and your will and your sin. That's a turning to Christ.
He said. They must deny themselves and
take up their cross daily and follow me.
That is a willingness to sacrifice and to suffer for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we see many times in the
American church the whole element of surrender and the
element of sacrifice and suffering is completely left out
of the equation. Therefore we don't have the true
gospel at all. And we know what Galatians says.
When Paul addressed those people there in Galatia, he told them
if anyone preaches a gospel other than the gospel we preach,
let them be a cursed. Yet we have false teachers
preaching a gospel that does not include repentance.
There is no surrender. There is no continual sacrifice
or suffering in our surrender to Christ.
It's interesting that when Jesus preached his first gospel
message in Mark chapter 1. Here's the message that Jesus
preached. Here's the gospel according to
Jesus, not the gospel according to the American idea.
Here is the gospel according to Jesus.
Mark chapter one, verse 15. Here's how he began to preach in
his earthly ministry. The time has come, he said.
The Kingdom of God has come near.
Repent and believe the good news.
How can you preach the gospel that does not include repentance
when Jesus himself, in his first gospel message, included
repentance and faith side by side?
What am I saying? I'm saying that true faith will
always repent and true repentance will always believe
the 2GO hand in hand. You cannot have one without the
other. They are the opposite sides of
the same coin. One can't have true salvation. 1
does not have the true gospel. It does not include faith and
repentance. Gospel message that doesn't
include repentance. Let me repeat it again, is no
gospel message. That's for all the people who
think that you can still live the same life that you've always
lived and claim to know Christ. That is a lie hatched straight
from hell. That is the voice of Satan
speaking through false teachers who would have you believe
something contrary to Scripture. These folks believe in that
gospel. It doesn't have to include
repentance. They also believe in a
relationship with Christ that doesn't have to result in
sanctification. We have a problem there, don't
we? That problem is this John
chapter 17. I hope that you have read John
17 and you have seen the Lord praying and the Lord praying for
us. And he prays in John 17 verse
17, he says sanctify them by truth.
Your word is truth, but so often in today's Christian circles we
have this gospel that does not include sanctification, meaning
you never have to become more like Christ.
You're never set aside. There's never any amount of
holiness being built in your life through the power of the
Holy Spirit by the Word of God. However, that would contradict
even the prayer of Jesus. Now I can.
Imagine a lot of things in this life, but one thing I can't
imagine is Jesus praying something that was in
contradiction to the will of the Father.
In fact, when Jesus prayed taught us how to pray.
He taught us to begin with the Father's will.
Not our will, but His will be done.
And Jesus himself said, I came not to do my will, but to do the
will of him who sent me. And Jesus here praying in John
1717, prays that the believers would be set apart, that they
would be sanctified, that they would be made holy through the
Word of God. It's so many false teachers in
our day leave sanctification completely out of the equation
with their hyper grace antinomian mentality.
You can send all you want, do all you want, do what you've
done before because you have grace and that is the farthest
thing from the gospel truth. That's a lie.
They not only teach a gospel message that doesn't include
repentance in a relationship that doesn't include
sanctification, they teach a justification that's built on
our own human works. If you've been a key life
fellowship in any amount of time, you know this.
You have received ample teaching about the fact that we are
justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
And that is it. Then our works do not justify
us. And why do we take that stand?
Because Scripture over and over and over again tells us that
that is where we are to stand. I don't seek to revisit a
message on justification by faith in alone in Christ alone
again today. Hopefully at this point you get
that, but there are these false teachers who in their human
ideologies somehow act as if we can work our way to
justification. That's the farthest thing from
the truth. John's Gospel, the 6th chapter.
In a conversation with the Lord, some of his disciples asked him
Verse. 28 of chapter 6 What must we do to do the works God
requires? He's talking about the works God
requires to save a man. Jesus doesn't go into
conversation about works. Here's what he says.
Jesus answered the work of God. Is this to believe?
In the one he has sent. The only work that is going to
save you is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work that
he did at Calvary 2000 years ago.
His death is buried on his. Resurrection.
Yeah, there are these false teachers who constantly want to
insert the idea that we can somehow work for salvation, and
that is the farthest thing from the truth.
It is by grace you have been saved through faith.
This is not of works. It's not of yourself.
It's a gift of God so that you can't boast about.
Is that not what Ephesians 289 tells us?
Of course it is. And so these people who are
contradicting the Savior's teaching oppose the teachings of
Christ. They also oppose the theology of
Christ or the theology surrounding Christ, right?
They promote to this theology that says that Jesus isn't God,
he's just a good man, or he's just a prophet of some sort.
Or he's maybe from God, but he's not necessarily God.
Can I, can I insert this for you?
John 11 in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He's always been God.
He always will be God. When he came to this earth and
he took on flesh, He is now God Incarnate.
The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ was not taken from him.
The humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ was given to him.
So don't mix that up. There are many promoting that
Jesus is not God when Jesus himself said that he is God.
So I don't remember any scripture where Jesus said that
he is God. Then you don't remember John
chapter 8 and John chapter 8. Jesus referred to himself as I
am. He says in verse 58 very truly I
tell you, Jesus answered before Abraham was born.
I am that term ego I me. That is the Greek term.
And it means just that I am from the Hebrew Yahweh who is with
you. I am.
I am the same I am who spoke from the burning Bush to Moses.
Jesus always has been and always will be God, the second person
of the Triune Godhead. You have many false teachers
refuse to teach, refuse to believe this, and lead others
astray by their false teaching. First John chapter 2 verse 22.
John says this. Who is the liar?
It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Such a person is the Antichrist, denying the Father and the Son.
When we talk about Jesus being the Christ, we are talking about
Jesus being that Savior who came from God, the one who Isaiah
referred to as Emmanuel. God, not some substitute God
himself with us and. So it's important that we
identify the doctrines of these false teachers, those who teach
against the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, promoting a Jesus
who is not God. He's a lesser God.
This type of thinking goes all the way back to Gnosticism.
They would teach a theory of demigods, lesser gods.
He is not a lesser God. He is King of kings and Lord of
Lords who will reign and has always reigned and will reign
forever. He's false teachers opposing the
theology surrounding Christ promote a God who is not
sovereign. Second Peter identifies them as
this second Peter chapter 2. He says this in verse one.
But there will we're also a false prophets among the people,
just as there will be false teachers among you, and they
will secretly introduce destructive heresies.
Here's their destruction. Destructive heresies, even
denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift
destruction on themselves. Many would say I don't deny the
sovereignty of God, but then they would turn around and limit
it. I want to propose.
This to all of you who bear the name of Christ this morning.
God is either. Sovereign or he isn't sovereign.
There is no such thing as kind of sovereign or little
sovereign, but it's dependent upon your free will.
He is either fully sovereign or he is not sovereign at all.
There is no middle ground. Jesus taught that He is
sovereign, and I choose to believe that which Jesus teaches
about His own Lordship that He is sovereign Lord of all.
So they teach things contrary to the Savior's teaching, but they
also teach things contrary to the Scripture's teaching.
Look what it says and does not agree to the sound instruction
of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching.
And we know that we can get godly teaching from the Lord
Jesus Christ, But where? Else can we get godly teaching
from? From the Word of God we can take
Genesis all the way to Malachi and we can say this.
Even those Old Testament scriptures are as much scripture
as Matthew through Revelation. And we can trust in them.
We can trust in them for all godly teaching.
Why? Because everything that we need
for life and godliness is found here.
But these false teachers, they teach contrary to what the
scriptures teach, refusing to align with it, refusing to
acknowledge it. How do they do this?
How do false teachers repeats that which is contrary to
scripture? Well, first they do this and
I'll make it easy for you to remember.
All you have to do is remember some M words.
Are you ready? They do it first by
misrepresenting the scriptures. They have poor hermeneutical
practices. What what do I mean by that?
Hermeneutics. And I know that everybody's
going Herman who? It's not a man.
It's the science of interpreting Scripture and before.
You get all crazy and think that God and science are separate.
They're not. Only the liberal thinking has
separated. God in science, He is the God
over science, and he's given us a science so that we can
interpret scripture. And what is that?
To read Scripture as scripture, to read it in its proper
context, to read it in its proper historical context, to
see who the the proper audience is.
Who is he addressing? Why is he addressing them?
How does this apply to our lives using good and clear
hermeneutical practice? Yet the false teacher does not
do this. Instead of exegesis, we had
properly interpret the scripture.
He uses what we know as eisegesis, where he, from his
own vantage point, the subjective view and that and
that alone, begins to analyze the scripture.
He makes the scripture in his mind say what he wants the
scripture to say. And isn't it easy to do that?
And that's what the false teacher does.
He teaches contrary to Scripture's teaching because
he's misinterpreting the scriptures.
Secondly, he's doing this. He's miss applying the
scriptures, completely missing the application that is given in
the Word of God and what he. Does is if he doesn't.
Miss it, Maybe he sees it. He redirects it just to fit his
personal agenda. Second, Peter chapter 3 verse 16
speaks of these ignorant and unstable people who distort the
scriptures. And yes, that is what Scripture
calls them. And so that's what I will call
them as well. They're ignorant and they are
unstable, contradicting the very word of God by misapplying the
scriptures that God has given us.
Thirdly, not only do they misinterpreted misapply, but
they also mishandled the Scriptures, using the scriptures
inappropriately to manipulate the weak.
And the feeble and the ignorant, because the ignorant can only
get away with leading the ignorant right for those who are
sound. Biblically, you're not going to
be LED astray by some ignorant false teacher.
Why? Because the Word of God is going
to give you wisdom that is beyond your humanity.
You're going to know. Wait a second.
This does not add up with scripture.
They're not going to be able to prey on you because we're going
to see in just a moment, these teachers prey on weak and
ignorant and unstable people, mishandled the scriptures, using
them for their own desires. And then lastly, what they do is
they mutilate the scriptures. They mutilate the scriptures.
What do I mean by that? They, they literally remove
things from the Word of God. Sometimes they remove those
things by jumping over them. Sometimes they remove those
things by not acknowledging them.
Sometimes they act as if they don't exist.
I don't really know how they pull it off.
That is why it's so important that when we look at the Word of
God, we teach the Word of God and we study the Word of God
verse by verse by verse by verse.
Why? So that we see it in its context
properly. We don't jump over something
just because we don't like it, and we don't just preach the
subjects that we do like or that are easy to preach.
Yet these false teachers, that's what they do, always appealing
to themselves and to their listeners by mutilating the Word
of God. Oh, there would be many who
would tell me about this very sermon.
You can't preach that to those people.
People won't stay. If you preach those kinds of
things, unbelievers won't. They'll either get saved or
they'll leave the digital believer, the same Holy Spirit
who lives in me, who lives in you, who inspired the very Word
of God to be penned. He bears witness to the fact
that this is the truth. We're not going to be LED astray
by those who pick and choose what Scripture they want to
believe and what Scripture they want to leave out.
It's a very dangerous thing. We begin to mutilate the Word of
God. In fact, in Deuteronomy chapter
4, we see a warning against that.
God gives Moses commands. He tells the people to do these
things verse 2. He then tells them don't take
anything from it. Don't remove it then in
Revelation we see in the New Testament a warning given there
at the end, chapter 22, verse 18.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of the
scroll. If anyone adds anything to them,
God will add to that person the plagues described in the scroll.
If you've never read Revelation and know about these plagues,
you don't want anything to do with them.
He says if anyone takes words away from the scroll of
prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in
the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in
this scroll. And I know what many people say
at this time. Well, Kirk, that's just talking
about Deuteronomy, and that's just talking about Revelation.
Why would you try to justify removing Scripture from other
places? Is Deuteronomy any less
scripture than Exodus? Is Revelation any less Scripture
than First Timothy that we look at today?
Is Revelation any less scripture, any more Scripture
than Genesis or Numbers? No, it is the Word of God
completely. We're not to mutilate the Word
of God. We're not to take that which we
like and discard that which we don't isn't.
That's what's happening in the American church, right?
We have taken things that God has explicitly commanded against
and we have embraced them as alternative lifestyles,
completely just removing it from scripture and acting as if it
doesn't exist or it never existed.
Or we look and look and look for the most liberal translation
that we can find so that it will say what we want it to say.
That's why the translation of scripture that you read from is
so important. Don't read a paraphrase that's
just for free said, well, I don't know if I can understand
it in any other way. Pray that you can pray that you
can read the word of God. Don't take anything away from
it. They mutilate it.
They mishandle it, misapply it, misinterpret it.
They do exactly as Satan did when he deceived Eve in the
garden. Do you know that's what he did?
She knew that she had received a command from the Lord and.
Yet he talked her into thinking that it wasn't true.
Isn't that what the false? Teachers are constantly doing as
they are led by these deceptive spirits controlled by Satan,
saying, Oh yeah, I know the scripture says that, but that's
not what it means. No, it means exactly what it
said and it says exactly what God means.
And you don't have the right to change the meaning just because
you don't like the outcome. Exactly what Satan did in the
garden. It's exactly what he tried to do
in Matthew chapter 4 when he was tempting Jesus.
He tried to use the Word of God against the Word of God.
Not a very smart thing to do, but how did he do it?
He took it out of context. He left some things out.
He added some things. It wasn't really what it was
supposed to be. It's very dangerous when we
handle the Scriptures this way. This is what these false
teachers are doing. Exactly what Satan did in
tempting Jesus. Exactly what Satan did in
tempting Eve in Genesis chapter 3.
And so the teachings and doctrine of these false
teachers, Paul wants that to be. Clearly notated, he wants
Timothy to know that if they're teaching these things, they are
false teachers. Everybody understand that if
someone is teaching something that is contrary to that which
Jesus taught and something that's contrary to the rest of
Scripture, they are false teachers.
We don't hug them and say, you know, they're Christians.
They're just a little in error. There's no such thing as I
little in error. It is that a little leaven
leavens the whole loaf. So we must see it as Scripture
says that it is, and so we see the doctrines of false teachers.
Secondly, we see this is the demeanor of false teachers.
I told you Paul wants the believers there at Ephesus to
know the false teachers when they see them.
And you can look at the demeanor of a false teacher and you can
recognize some things very. Quickly, and Paul's going to
outline that he says this about the false teachers that he's
addressing to Timothy. He says he is conceited and
understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in
controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy,
strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, and constant
friction between men of corrupt mind.
Who have been robbed of the. Truth.
So who are these teachers? What do they look like?
Right. That's what Paul is addressing
here. It's important that we know,
isn't it? Important that we identify?
Can we all agree that false teaching is an enemy to the
church? Shouldn't we?
Identify our enemies. Yeah, because we definitely
don't want to shoot our friends. So we have to identify our
enemies. What?
What do they look like? What is the demeanor of the
false teacher? Why he says they're conceited?
What does that mean? It means that they're controlled
and led by their own pride. Now, before you get worried, let
me ask you this question. How many of you struggle with
pride? The ones who don't have their
hands in the air. You're struggling right now and
you're lying to yourself and God and everyone else because we all
struggle with pride. Here's the difference between
ourselves, those who struggle with pride as believers, and
that false teacher. He doesn't struggle with it
anymore. He just full blown gives into
it. He's conceited.
He he is trusting in himself and his own ability and that alone.
He has his own agenda and he gives no regard to the will of
God controlled by his own. Pride Second Peter, chapter 2,
verse 10. Peter says this.
This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt, desires
the flesh and despise authority he calls them.
Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on
celestial beings. They they they heap abuse on
things that they do not even know anything.
About this is how foolish and arrogant they are.
Let it be known today at the false teachers of our day,
they're just as arrogant, just as conceited.
Well, I would challenge you to do this, though I would also
warn against it all at the same time.
Turn on the Christian Broadcasting Network, which
everyone you choose, and sooner or later you're going to find
some false teacher. And if you'll be honest with
yourself, you will recognize them because they are arrogant.
Dressed in five or $6000 suits with $30,000 watches about to
jump on their multi $1,000,000 airplane to go to whatever next
venue that they can go to to rob people.
When you listen to them talk, it's all about them and never
about Christ. It's all about what they got
going on their ministry. Can I say something to all of
you? Any aspiring ministers in there?
You don't. Have a ministry.
Your ministry is Christ. Your ministry is the gospel.
You have the ministry of reconciliation.
That is the only ministry that you have, and Christ is in
charge of that ministry. Stop lying to yourself or anyone
else about the fact that you have a ministry.
If you have a ministry, you're in grave danger.
These men are owned by their pride, they disguise it.
Their bold arrogance is disguised as godly wisdom,
sometimes even false humility. But Richard Baxter said this
about these false teachers. He said take heed of a proud
self conceited teacher. That thinks himself too wise to
learn. You'll know them because they
know everything. They they can't learn anything.
You can show them the word of God.
And if they already have their mind made-up, what they're going
to believe and what they're going to teach, as many of these
charismatic teachers do in our day, they are going to shun you.
They're going to say that you are somehow the one who's held
in bondage. I'm held in bondage because I'm
telling you plainly from the word of God that what you're
teaching is a lie. And right here in black and
white is the truth. And I'm in bondage.
No, Sir, the truth has set me free, and you need to be set
that free by that same truth. They're conceited, not.
Only they're conceited, they're controversial.
He says he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and
quarrels. No, just an unhealthy interest.
Sometimes we have to stand our ground.
Sometimes we have to make a good case for Christ.
There's nothing wrong with that. But he's talking about unhealthy
controversies and quarrels. Arguing for the sake of arguing.
We've all met those aspiring theologians who learn a little
bit and then they want to argue about what little bit that they
know, and very quickly they run out of things to argue about.
Because they don't know a whole lot.
I've said it. Often, and I will say it again,
the people who argue the most are usually the ones who know
the least. Because a godly man knows this.
Sometimes it's best. Just to shut your mouth.
Sometimes it's best just to be slow to speak.
It's going to become angry. I'm quick to listen.
It's James Time. But these teachers, they're
controversial. They like controversy.
They thrive in controversy. They're always the victims in
the controversy. You just watch the charismatic
movement. You will see this over and over
and over and over again when someone calls them out on their
false doctrine. The person who called them out
becomes the bad guy. And how's that person the bad
guy? All he's simply doing is caring
about the soul of that person and the souls of those that they
are leading astray. Yet a true Shepherd.
Is then known as the bad guy. You know, the one who calls a
wolf a wolf and wants everyone else to know that he is or she
is a wolf. These false teachers
controversial, bringing division in the church.
Wherever they show up, you've seen them, you know them.
Everywhere they go, they go. There is some type of argument,
there is some type of quarrel, there's some type of
controversy, there's some type of division that is brought
because of them. Pay very close attention to
those people because they bear the mark, the demeanor of false
teachers. Romans 1617.
Here's what Paul says about them.
He says. I urge you, brothers and
sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put
obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you
have learned. What is the?
Teaching, they have learned the Scriptures, the true gospel, he
says. Keep away from them.
That's how dangerous they are. Stay away from them.
I know, right? Because you haven't been trained
properly in the American church. There are sometimes, and there
are some people you just need to distance yourself from.
People who are about sound doctrine need to distance
themselves from people who are about false doctrine.
Period. You say, well, isn't that
controversial? No, there's no controversy at
all. I'm mandated by Scripture to
live at peace with all men as much as it depends on me.
And sometimes in order to live at peace with people, I have to
distance myself from them. Learn that lesson from Scripture
with these false teachers. We need to distance ourselves
from them. We need not fellowship with
them. We need not.
Commune with them. We need not go out to lunch with
them. We need not entertain their
teaching. They're cancerous.
Very controversial, he goes on, and he says after the fact that
they're controversial. These are controversies and
quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk,
evil, suspicion and constant friction between men.
He says that they are of corrupt mind.
They're conceited, controversial and corrupt.
What is he saying here? Does this mean that they're just
having a bad day? No, he says, who have been
robbed from the truth. Robbed of the truth.
What is he saying? These men are totally apostate.
They are unbelieving. They never have been Christians.
They have only posed as Christians.
They are very dangerous. They are corrupt.
To the core. Matthew 17 verse 16 back to our
scripture reading for this morning.
He says buy their fruit. You will recognize them if.
People pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears
bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will
recognize them. Look at their demeanor.
Christian, listen to me. Do not apologize for being
discerning. Especially in our day.
If something doesn't seem right, it's probably not.
What right? Your grandma told you this.
You didn't know she was so proverbial.
But watch this. Wherever there is smoke, there
is what fire? Unfortunately in regard to this,
where there's smoke, there's strange fire.
Fire that is not biblical, fire that that does not point to
Christ, fire that only reveals that their corrupt hearts Jesus
calls him in Matthew 17. I mean, 7 verse 15, He calls
them ravenous wolves that are dressed like sheep.
Ravenous wolves dressed like sheep, Agents of Satan in
disguise. You better know what you are
dealing with. See their demeanor, it will be
obvious. If you will just discern, it
will be obvious and you're going to see in a moment there are
other reasons other than their demeanor that you can take note
that they're false teachers. But this is a great starting.
Point Acts 20, verse 29. Paul calls them savage.
Wolves, you said. They're going to come in,
they're going to do harm. Peter calls them springs without
water in his second epistle, meaning they promise the living
water, but they don't know the living water.
There is no water inside. Jude calls them ungodly people.
These are not. People who were ever believers.
These are people who they seem to be believers, who have
apostatized them from the faith that they are not believers at
all. They're not to be played around
with. They're corrupt through and
through, robbed of the truth. What does that mean?
Well, they've heard the truth. They've heard it with their
ears. They've come to the knowledge.
Of the truth. Yet they reject the truth, and
one who comes to the knowledge of the truth and rejects the
truth is no believer at all. They never were believers.
So we can't play around with them.
We can't play around with their demeanor.
We have to discern it. We can't apologize for that.
We have to call it what it is. It's interesting that Satan has
created a church culture in America.
We're afraid to call a wolf a wolf.
We're afraid to call a spade a spade.
May not be so any longer that we do our due diligence and calling
the false teachers exactly what they are so that others will be
warned about them so they will not be LED astray.
Thirdly, why do they do this? What do they get out of this?
Because that's what the question we ought to ask, what do they
get out of this? What do they get out of knowing
the truth of the gospel, knowing a little bit about Christianity,
even faking it to some degree, then leaving sound teaching
What? How do they benefit?
You know how they benefit. Let's not play around with this.
They benefit today the same way that they benefited 2000 years
ago. Here's what Paul, Paul says in
verse 5, the second part he said and who think that godliness is
a means to financial gain. There is the drive behind false
teachers. The ball's going to give a
lesson here, but godliness with contentment is great game.
We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing
out of it, but if we have food and clothing we will be content.
With that, what's the drive behind these false teachers?
The lust for cash? Make no beans about it.
You know what they want? Money, Riches.
The world. And you know what?
They've discovered I can get that through the church.
And how do I get that through the church?
Through ignorant and uneducated Christians, I will come into
their church. I will tickle their ears and
tell them what they want to hear, and then I'll do the old
bait and switch. Here's how it works.
And I know it seems foolish to biblically sound people, but
some of you have been caught up in this in the past.
They will tell you this. God wants you to be rich.
Well, the problem with that is scripture doesn't say that God
wants you to be content. God wants you to be content with
godliness. He wants you to be content in
Christ. He wants Christ to be your
sufficiency, he said. Well, pastor, do you say a
person's wrong to be rich? No, A person is wrong when their
wealth controls them, when it is a God to them, when they won't
let it go for Christ. Then there's a.
Problem. But a person who's driven by
their lust, their greedy lust for money, he comes into the
church and he teaches it like this.
Give to my ministry and if you'll give to my ministry, God
will bless you however many fold He decides you're going to get
blessed that day. I don't know why he got to
decide that and these ignorant people.
Give gobs of money to this person who is funding their own
lust for cash in the church. You say?
I know, but pastor, he was a preacher and I've known him for
many years. Yes, and he lost his way.
He forgot what it's about. He forgot godliness with
contentment is great gain. That's why Paul is telling this
to Timothy. He's saying, Timothy, don't lose
your way. There are many people who they
have discovered that they can make money off of Jesus.
Don't be one of them. We'll be driven by a lust for
cash, by your worldly riches and your worldly gain.
Hebrews 13 The author of Hebrews says this.
He says keep your lives free from the love of money and be
content with what you have because God has said never will
I leave you, never will I. Forsake you What promise?
You say, well that never would I leave.
Will I leave you? Never will.
I forsake you. Seems kind of out of place, does
it? He's saying keep your lives free
from the love of money and be content with knowing me.
Be content with knowing that I am always there to meet every
need that you have. I am your supply.
I am sufficient. You need nothing else.
It's important that we remember that.
Why? So that we don't become driven
by worldly riches. These false teachers, they have
a lust for cash, just like their predecessor, Judas Iscariot.
We had a lust for cash. Didn't he sold out the Lord for
30 pieces of silver? Oh, let's not forget, that's not
the first time that he was identified as being driven by
riches. There, as Mary took that vessel
of nard, and she broke it, and she poured it on the feet of the
Lord. He was the one who said but this
is worth a lot of money. We could have done a lot of good
things with this. That's not really what he meant.
He was the keeper of the treasury.
He meant I could have more in my hands.
That same Judas Iscariot, predecessor to all apostates who
would have a lust for cash and bring it into the church,
exploiting people for their greed, using Christianity and
some kind of false godliness to do the opposite of what Jesus
said. Isn't that interesting?
Because that's exactly what they do.
They use this to do the opposite of what Jesus said.
Here's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6.
That's why I told you the teachings of Jesus.
They're they're important, they're essential, he says in
verse 19, Do not store them for yourself.
Treasures on earth where malls and vermin destroy, where
thieves break in and steal, but store them for yourself,
treasures in heaven where malls and vermin do not destroy and
where thieves do not break in and steal.
You say, well, how does that contradict?
How is that the teaching of the false teachers contradict that
teaching there of Jesus? Here's what they say, Bring me
money in this life and you'll get money back in your life.
Now why would Jesus teach the lesson that he taught there in
Matthew chapter 6 to turn around?
And then make it about our worldly riches.
He would never do that. He would never contradict
himself. Why?
Because He is the truth, and the truth cannot contradict itself.
Far too many false teachers are using Christianity to line their
pockets. You know it's true and I know
it's true. They're lining their pockets
instead of pointing others to Jesus Christ.
Shame on them. Shame on them.
There is a dark and desolate hell that awaits them.
They have a lust for cash, but they also are driven by a lack
of contentment. That's why Paul tells Timothy,
we'll be driven by by the same thing these false teachers are
driven by. You have contentment in the
Lord. Godliness with contentment.
That is the greatest treasure that anyone can have.
You, you want to know the key to happiness in this life?
Are you listening? Everybody's looking for it.
Godliness with contentment. It's a great game.
That means if you have $0.00,
you are content and you are joyful in the Lord.
If you have a gazillion dollars, you are content and you are
joyful in the Lord. And you know this, that he owns
your poverty as well as the fact that He owns your riches.
You glorify Him in every situation, not like these false
teachers who are driven by a lack of contentment, wanting
more and more and more and more. They forget that God has placed
them right where they need to be.
He's given them exactly what they need.
That's why he reminds Timothy here.
For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing
out of it. But if you have food and
clothing, we will be content with that.
What a heart. We have food and clothing, we'll
be content with that. Why is that important?
Because that's all Christ ever promised you.
Matthew 633 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and these things, what things your basic needs
shall be added unto you in this life.
He has promised to take care of you, just as He takes care of
the flowers and the field and the birds of the sky.
He hasn't promised you that you're going to be the richest
person in America. He hasn't even promised you that
you're going to be the richest. Person in east Montgomery County
fact. He warns US against a lack of
contentment over and over and over again, forgetting who we
belong to, forgetting that he's going to take care of us, losing
sight of those things. Know how dangerous that is?
How many have fallen victim to that, even in the?
Church because of these sly teachers, right?
If you love God, know that God loves you.
And if you love God, he'll bless you with earthly riches.
Show me that in the Bible. He's one of the richest men that
we see in Scripture. Job had everything taken away
from him. He said, well, God blessed him
in the end. He did, but he didn't have to.
But all the lessons that Job learned with just being content,
just being content and knowing that God is God and he is under
his care no matter where he finds himself in life.
He himself said the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's godliness with
contentment. That is what Paul is telling
Timothy to be and to have, and he's warning that these false
teachers do not have that. We must learn to glorify God
with a little, because if you can't glorify God with a little,
you can't ever expect to glorify God with a lot.
Now I know what the charismatics do.
They act as if God is somehow holding that back from you until
you learn how to manage it. No, it's just a fact.
It's just common sense. Jesus teaches this.
Common sense lesson in Luke's gospel in the 16th chapter, he
says in verse 10, whoever can be trusted with very little can
also be trusted with much, and whoever's dishonest with very
little will also be dishonest with much.
So if you've been trust, been trustworthy and handling worldly
wealth, if you have not, excuse me, been trustworthy and
handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
What is he saying? You can't even handle the little
bit that I've given you and allowed you to have by my grace.
As far as? Worldly riches is concerned.
What makes you think I'm going to trust you with any kind of
heavenly riches? That's the lesson there.
That's something. That we all need to pay
attention to why godliness with contentment is great gain.
Paul reminding Timothy of this. These false teachers
contradicting that at every turn, never satisfied with their
earthly possessions or their earthly positions.
Right. Always telling the church how
you deserve more. I don't hear that a lot.
You deserve more. You're somebody.
I see churches who put it up on their billboards.
I am not somebody. Christ does everything.
I am dead. I died with Christ.
Kirk Hall does not matter. Any riches I have or in Christ,
the end. Yeah, we see this false teaching
come out constantly because of the American Dream, that bill of
lies that you've all bought into that is not biblical at all.
You're never satisfied with your earthly possessions or the OR
your earthly position. Always and constantly wanting
more, more, more. Why?
Lack of contentment, the lust for cash.
Greed is that idol that you worship.
Covetousness is just something that you do and you are.
You must repent of this. But unfortunately, these
teachers, they exploit it. They exploit your weaknesses,
they drag you into their trap. And the lust for worldly riches
mixed with the basic discontentment of the American
church drives us to covetous desires and false ideologies
that are opposite of the word of God.
The sad thing is this, and let us be warned, the destruction of
false teachers. And the sad thing is this, as we
get to that fourth point, the destruction of false teachers,
not only do they destroy themselves, but they destroy all
those who are falling. This isn't verse nine.
People who want to get rich fall into temptation, in a trap, and
into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into
ruin and destruction. Why is he saying this?
He's warning the people there at Ephesus now.
Your lust for more is going to be fed by these teachers who
have a lust for more. Be careful, he says in verse 10,
for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Watch this strong language here. Some people eager for money have
wandered from the faith. This is apostasy.
They've completely wandered from the faith and pierced themselves
with many griefs. American Christian, American
Church, please hear this warning.
Hear it. It's for you.
Many of you have been sold a lie, a bill of goods from false
teachers for hundreds of years in this country.
They have told you that you can follow Christ and have all your
greedy desires of the flesh. And now they've repackaged it in
our day in a nice little neat, concise package, right?
The Word of Faith movement. It is a lie riddled full of
false teaching. Period.
Stay away from it. Don't listen to their podcasts,
don't buy their books, don't watch their services.
Don't please. Attend one of their services.
Shut them down. Stop the life vein that feeds
them. Teach the word of God accurately
so that Christians won't be ignorantly throwing their money
at these charlatans. These thieves heed the warning.
Lust for worldly riches will be the destruction of false
teachers and those who follow them.
Matthew 624. We can't take back what the Lord
has already said. No one can serve 2 masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
Do do I need to read that again so that the American church can
hear that you cannot serve both God and money that is from the
Lord Jesus Christ? That is not Kirk Hall standing
up here making up something. Because if it was up to Kirk
Hall, you know what I would say? Line my pockets with your
stupidity and I would tell you any lie that I had to tell you
so that you would do that. But I'm not corrupt.
I'm not a false teacher. I'm not one of these people who
are exploiting the ignorant and the unlearned.
What is their destruction? Because they have destruction
coming. What isn't?
Well, first, they're devoured by greed.
They don't have to wait on this. Greed is already eating at them.
Second, Peter 2, verse 1, he says.
But there were also false prophets among the people, just
as there will be false teachers among you.
He says they will secretly introduce destructive heresies,
even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift
destruction. I want you to pay attention to
this. I know you've read this passage
already for another point, but read it again.
Swift destruction on themselves. It's coming now.
Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way
of truth into disrepute in their greed.
These teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.
That's why they don't preach the scriptures, they preach stories.
Their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their
destruction has not been sleeping.
It is going on actively. They are being destroyed from
the inside. Out because of their greed.
It's eating it now. Devoured by it, they're trapped
by chasing their own sinful desires and greed.
I believe many of them know the truth intellectually, but they
love their greed more than they love the God who created them.
What do they do? They teach others to do the
same. Isn't that the big danger of
false teachers? They duplicate and they make
disciples. That's why it's important that
those of us who are sound in doctrine make disciples, because
these false teachers do the same thing.
They lead others into destruction.
That's how it works. That's why Jesus said in Matthew
1514, He says this. Leave them.
They're blind guides. He's warning.
His disciples leave the Pharisees.
They're blind guides. They're false teachers.
What they're saying is not true. He says the blind lead the
blind. Both will fall into a pit.
That's the danger of that false teacher who is devoured by
greed. He will lead others to be
devoured by the same greed. That's why Paul said earlier
this first epistle or this pastoral epistle to Timothy
chapter 4. He says watch your life and
doctrine closely, persevering them, because if you do, you
will save both yourself and your hearers.
You know what a true man of God wants to do, what a true
shepherd wants to do. He wants to save both himself
and his hearers. How does he do this sound
doctrine, Sola Scripture, the word of God over and over and
over again without compromise. But the false teacher does the
opposite. He's the blind leading the
blind, and he leads the blind into.
Pit devoured by their own greed. Jesus is not silent about their
judgement. He says in Matthew 18-6.
If anyone calls as one of these little ones, those who believe
in me to stumble, that's the Christian who's perhaps a little
ignorant. He says it would be better for
them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be
drowned in the depths of the sea.
I stood at the place where Jesus would have said this.
And the fact is that when they actually mined this site, the
archaeologist came in and they found several 100 millstones
right there on the Sea of Galilee.
And those millstones were I couldn't pick them up.
You couldn't pick them up. Probably three or four of us
couldn't pick them up. Jesus would have used that word
picture and he would have said it's better for you to have that
millstone right there tied around your neck and thrown into
the sea that was right behind him as he preached the sermon.
Why do I say that? Because when we follow false
teachers, we are devoured by that same greed as they are.
They will suffer for it, and you will suffer as well.
You will suffer in this life, and if you were not careful, you
will suffer for all eternity. They were devoured and are
devoured by greed, but they're destined for grief.
Grief, a dune. In the Greek it means this.
It means sorrow or sorrowful grief.
They are brought to the deepest grief, and they are brought to
this grief even in this life, having known the truth but
openly rejected it. That is how the apostate is
described, coming to the knowledge of the truth.
There are so many who have come to the knowledge of the truth
and yet do not know Christ and. Did you know that's very
possible you can come to the intellectual knowledge of Christ
and yet not know Christ? And how sad it is what grief
must be upon them to have heard the truth, to have known it
intellectually, but to then openly reject it because of
their own corruption. Oh, the misery of the apostate.
The misery, you say, Kirk, do you really believe that an
apostate is miserable? Do you think that they know?
Yes, they know enough to be miserable.
Go and look at Judas Iscariot. What did he do?
He apostatized from Christ. And what did he do?
He was so stricken with grief, even in this life, he hanged
himself. Oh, they're full of grief.
This is what they're destined for.
Destined for grief unless they repent.
They've pierced themselves with many griefs even in this life,
but unfortunately, grief for all eternity.
Or here's the eternal part of this, they're destined for grief
not only in this life while they're getting rich off of
Christ and off of his church by scamming people, one day they're
going to pay for it for all eternity.
Second Peter chapter 2 this first God did not spare angels
when they send verse 4, but sent them to hell, putting them in
chains of darkness to be held for judgement.
If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood
on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of
righteousness, and seven others. If he condemned the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an
example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, And if he
rescued a lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the
depraved conduct of the lawlessness.
For the righteous man lived among them day after day, was
tormented and in his righteous soul by the lawless.
Deeds he saw and heard. If this is so, then the Lord
knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the
unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgement.
This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of
the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not
afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings.
He's saying this. This is especially true of those
false teachers. They will experience eternal
grief in hell without apology. Second Peter 2.
The latter part of chapter 2, verse 17 says these people are
springs without water and mist, driven by storm.
Black as darkness is reserved for them.
For they mouth the empty boastful words, and by appealing
to lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just
escaping from those who live in air.
It's an interesting how those who come to faith in Christ
immediately these false teachers want to try to suck them up
right? The charismatic movement tries
to draw them in. Oh yeah, you have Jesus, but
you're missing so much more. You're not missing anything.
You're missing nothing. If you have Christ, you have it
all in Christ. All is contained.
Stop listening to those people. So they promised them freedom
while they themselves. Are slaves of depravity for
people who are slaves to whatever has mastered them.
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by
knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again
entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at
the end than they were at the beginning.
I know many people. Want to say, well, see, he's
talking about losing salvation. He's not.
He's talking about a person who comes to the knowledge of Jesus
Christ and they even have some moral reform.
But watch what he says at the end.
It would have been better for them not to have known the way
of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their
backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
Of them the proverbs are true. This is why it doesn't mean a
person can lose his salvation. A dog returns to its vomit.
What is he saying? Did that person ever cease to be
a dog? No, if you're in Christ, you're
a new creation. You're not a dog anymore.
Therefore you're not going to go back and lick up vomit.
He uses another illustration, and a sow that is washed returns
to her wallowing in the mud. I know many of our students,
they show animals in the fair. Every year I go and I watch the
pig show. I know nothing about it, but I
like to watch what's interesting to me.
These kids will get these pigs all cleaned up for the pig show.
And you know what? Before they enter into that
arena, a pig is going to lay down in another pig's mess.
Why? They're pigs.
That's what pigs do. These people were never
believers. They prove it by their lives.
They prove it by they're teaching.
It'll be proved for all eternity and hell, when they perish
because they did not repent and they did not turn to Jesus
Christ. And so just as this deception
falls upon these false teachers and those who follow them, so
will the destruction that follow.
And so be warned, be warned. Know that this is not something
to play with. This is not something to just
pass off as, oh, another sermon to fill time.
This could be the difference for you between eternal life and
eternal death. Some of you have been LED astray
by false teachers. I pray that you would see that
today for those who teach false things.
I'll make no mistake when I read those things about them.
Spending an eternity in hell does not throw my heart, causes
me to pray for them, causes me to pray for the Jesse
Duplantises, Kenneth Higgins, the Joel Osteens.
You say? Well, Kirk, you're naming some
pretty big names there. They're all false teachers.
And I grieve for their soul because they've LED people down
a path of destruction. And if they don't repent, they
will spend an eternity grieving in hell.
Can you imagine? In hell, when you have 100%
consciousness and you were there and for all eternity, while you
were in torment for all eternity, all you can think
about is how you distorted the gospel for your own gain, how
you blasphemy Christ. What misery awaits them?
I would not wish that on my worst enemy.
May they hear the truth and may they repent of their sin and
turn to Christ and be saved. So we wrap this up, believer.
I can't wrap it up any other way or any better way, and remind
you again of what the Lord said in Matthew Chapter 7.
He says watch out for false prophets.
They come to you in sheep's clothing.
They're in pulpits, but inwardly they're ferocious wools.
Buy their fruit, fruit. You will recognize them.
You pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears
bad fruit. Good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will
recognize them. So, pastor, why is it so
important that we recognize them so that they don't bring you
down, so they don't lead you astray?
Let us be devoted to sound doctrine from the Scripture in
the Scripture alone to the unbeliever having heard the
gospel message today. What is that what Jesus
preached? Repent and believe.
I pray that the Lord would graciously allow you to do that
today. He would regenerate you to a
point by His Spirit where you do have a desire to repent of your
sin and to trust in Jesus Christ alone because only He can do
that work. Because the sad fact is, this
unbeliever, you've already bought into the lives of the
false teachers. Oh, maybe in many ways, but I
can tell you too that potentially you have bought into
some of you have bought into the ideology that's being spewed in
this country that you don't really need Jesus, that all
roads will eventually lead to heaven.
The problem with that is John 14 six where Jesus said I am the
way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father, but
by me. It is only through Christ that
anyone will be saved. Turn to Christ and be saved
today. There is no alternate route.
Stop buying the lives of these false teachers, the good old boy
ideology that if I just do enough good, I'll somehow make
it. You can't do enough good.
Completely depraved. There is an unrighteous no, not
one, no one seeks after him. You must be born again.
According to John chapter 3. You must be born again.
I pray today that God would work a new birth in you.
Maybe you rub the school. In the modern church in America
where you say this, you've bought into this lie.
Well, I have Jesus, but I also like the things of the world
too, so I kind of have them both.
That's a lie I had straight from the pits of hell.
For if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in
you. That's what the word of God.
Proclaims you can't serve 2 masters.
That's not difficult to understand.
Jesus is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.
Are you following Christ because you can't have both Jesus and
the world? Are you following Christ?
You're never going to get there on your own.
Those are lies that false teachers spew.
Have you repented of your sin? And have you believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ and that alone to be saved?
Then and only then, the person be biblically saved, cleansed of
all their sin. Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for your word.
We thank you that it is true and we know that it will accomplish
exactly what you desire for it accomplished today.
God, I pray for the Sinner who's here, the unbeliever.
I pray that you birth faith and repentance in them today, that
they would believe that they would turn from their sin and
turn to Christ as their only hope and be saved this very day.
God, I pray for each believer in this room.
I pray that you would protect them by your word from the many,
many false teachers who are out in this world today seeking to
devour, seeking to dismantle, sinking to cause division.
And I pray that you give us discernment, that the
discernment would come from the truth of Your Word, empowered by
Your Holy Spirit that lives in us, that we would stand and we
would contend for the faith that we have been entrusted to
contend for, just as Jude has commanded us to do.
May you be glorified in our lives.
And we pray these things in Christ.
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