Spotting Misleading Teachers
Notes
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Secular -
Secular -
A little girl came home from school and said to her mother, “Mommy, today in school I was punished for something that I didn’t do.”
The mother exclaimed, “But that’s terrible! I’m going to have a talk with your teacher about this … by the way, what was it that you didn’t do?”The little girl replied, “My homework.”
Historical/Cultural Context -
Historical/Cultural Context -
The book of 1 John is one of the five books in the New Testament that was written by John the Apostle, brother of James. They were known as the sons of thunder. This letter was written between A.D. 85 to A.D. 100. First John was written to a church or group of churches in crisis—churches who were being attacked by false teaching. Some individuals who had once been associated with the church had accepted heresy and had left the church. After they left they continued to spread their false teaching to the church. They went so far as to organize and send out itinerant preachers to various churches with the goal of converting those in the churches to their beliefs. This created confusion and plunged the churches into crisis. In response to this situation, John wrote 1 John, following that up with 2 and 3 John. His goal was to stop this false teaching and to bring comfort to the Christians in these churches.
Biblical Text -
Biblical Text -
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
-[Prayer]-
-[Prayer]-
Life Principle - Test Biblical Teachers, Rely On The Holy Spirit And Ask, “Is What I Am Hearing Man Centered Or God Centered?”
Life Principle - Test Biblical Teachers, Rely On The Holy Spirit And Ask, “Is What I Am Hearing Man Centered Or God Centered?”
Life Point- Test Teachers And Their Messages
Life Point- Test Teachers And Their Messages
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
This section is not talking about some super spiritual event.
John is calling us to be discerning about the people we listen to. About those that call themselves ministers or teachers of the Word of God.
God’s Word is Holy and precious to the believer it should be handled with an attitude of reverence and awe. It should be studied in the light of its’ Historical, cultural context.
Any teacher who says they have been given special revelation or special knowledge about a topic or passage, make sure that what they teach isn’t heresy. A lost of people have claimed this over the years and they usually fall into a heresy called gnosticism. Gnosticism is nothing new. The term gnostic means special knowledge.
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
The largest false teaching out there right now in the church, as a whole, calls itself the Word of Faith movement.
One of the most awful things they teach:
God wants for Christians to be healthy and wealthy. Many Word-Faith teachers equate poverty with sin, including a lack of faith. Wealth, and health, needs to be “claimed” because Jesus through his atoning death has freed us from the curse of the law, and we are now freed from all disease and poverty.
They twist scripture to come up with this garbage. Mainly Galatians 3:13 and Deuteronomy 28.
If this is true, then Paul was a sinner.
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Many scholars believe Paul is talking about an illness as being the thorn in the flesh. He says he will boast in his infirmities. I believe it was his eyesight.
See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!
Now according to the Word-of-Faith Paul lacked enough faith for God to heal him.
As far as prosperity goes, Paul writes:
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Let me tell you some truth. The truth is, that life is a roller coaster. Sometimes you will abound and sometimes you will find yourself in need. Notice I said need and not want.
When you are in need that is when the people of the Christian community are supposed to help.
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
So you see how important it is to be discerning.
Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So if you hear a new preacher, or and old preacher who is teaching something that doesn’t sound quite right what should you do?
First of all, remember:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Second, Ask you pastor. That is what we are here for:
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Whatever man may teach you, don’t just accept their word for it. Don’t just accept my word for it. Be like the Bereans.
Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
The scriptures are your final authority. We are to search them in their proper context, praying for discernment of what is being taught to us.
Illustration -
Illustration -
(Testimony of the Word-Faith movement)
Life Point - Is It Man Centered Or God Centered?
Life Point - Is It Man Centered Or God Centered?
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
The gnostics, those who thought they had special revelation from God, were teaching a heresy that Jesus was not 100% man and 100% God. The theological term is called the Hypostatic Union.
They taught that He only looked like man. They would say that anything that is of the flesh, the material world is evil and anything of the spiritual world is good. So Jesus being fully man puts a monkey wrench in their teachings. So, they took it out.
Believe it or not this teaching is alive and well in different forms today in the church, where the spiritual realm is regarded far above the physical realm. Mostly today you will find that in your Word-Faith churches.
You see the God of the Bible created both realms, and in order to redeem mankind Jesus had to be a man.
One of my favorite Apologetics websites, Carm.org, has it succinctly. By the ways Apologetics has nothing to do with apologizing. Apologetics is the study of God’s Word using simple logic and reason in order to defend the Christian faith.
The sinner cannot fulfill the law because he is sinful (in the flesh).
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Since the sinner cannot fulfill the law and satisfy God, it follows that only God can do this.
This is simple logic. If we are unable to fulfill the Law, then we will be punished by it. But, since God desires us to be saved, the Law must be satisfied. Since we cannot keep the Law and it must be satisfied, then the only one capable of keeping the Law must keep the Law: God.
Jesus is God in the flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
Jesus was also a man under the Law.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Jesus became sin for us and bore our sins in His body on the cross – thus fulfilling the Law.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
Look at that last part there. John equates false teaching to the spirit of the Antichrist.
That is what is so insidious about false teachers and their false messages. They mix truth with error and in-so-doing they actually give us a different picture of Christ. Which, when followed out to its’ logical conclusion, gives us a false Gospel.
For example, the message is not the good news of health and wealth. It is the good news of peace between God and man. The wiping away of our sin debt and bringing us into God’s Kingdom. The salvation of our souls from Hell.
Which, if may say so, is a better Gospel than just health and wealth. The health and wealth Gospel makes God out to be some celestial Santa Clause who does our bidding if we manipulate Him with our words and do the right formulas to get what you want. That is a different Gospel.
Paul said:
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
God’s Gospel is God centered. Man’s Gospel is always man-centered.
A good test to know if a message is from God or not can be summed up this way. Does this message call to repentance? Is what I am hearing centered around God or is what I am hearing exciting because it appeals to my sinful nature? Is it God-centered or man-centered?
I will go conservative and say, that I personally believe that if we asked these questions we could spot 90% of false teachers and false teaching in the church today.
Life Point - Rely On The Holy Spirit?
Life Point - Rely On The Holy Spirit?
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
John reminds us that God will not leave us hanging out to dry. Those who are being saved, the Christians are of God, and have overcome them because we have the Holy Spirit in us who is greater than He who is in this world.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
For the believer, we may get off in left field every-so-often. However, the Holy Spirit will not allow us to remain there. He will use the Scriptures first and foremost and others to lead is in the direction we should go.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.
Why do so many follow these false teachers?
John tells us right here in our main text.
They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
They are of the world. The system of the World. They lust after the things of the world and if it requires them to be self-deceived to fulfill that lust then they will do so, for their minds are set on the things of this world.
You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
He is talking about people in the church. They, more-than-likely, aren’t really saved but are deceiving themselves. This is why the scriptures tell us to examine ourselves.
Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord;
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
When we look at how many are deceived these days let us remember what Jesus said:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
What fruit are we talking about here? Is it signs, wonders, and miracles?
In the last times there will be false signs and wonders.
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
So, signs and wonders are not a good test then.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Illustration -
Illustration -
A woman is walking through the park when she sees a very attractive man sitting on a park bench. He's reading a book and eating some fruit out of a Tupperware container. Slowly the woman gathers the courage to go ask the man out.
So, she walks over and takes a seat next to him on the bench, turns to him and says, "Sorry to bother you. I know this may be a little forward but I would love to grab coffee with you some time." Flattered, the man responds, "Sure... but what makes you so certain you and I would get along so well?"
"Well," the woman says, "A couple things, actually. I noticed you're reading Mark Twain. I was a communications major in university and I actually wrote my thesis on Mark Twain, how he used satire as a lens to comment on current events of the time, comparing him to satirical news sources of today. He's my favourite author"
Now the man is taken aback, "Get out of here. I was an English major in university! I specialized in 19th century American literature, this is like my fourth or fifth time reading Tom Sawyer, I absolutely love Mark Twain."
They both can't believe it, this has got to be a match made in heaven.
"Ok," the woman says, "well, buckle up because here's the icing on the cake. I noticed you're eating a prune. Prunes are my absolute favourite fruit. When I was a kid, my grandfather lived on a farm. He had an orchard that mainly grew apples and some lemons, but he knew how much my sister and I loved prunes so he kept a couple of plum trees. Every year at the end of the summer, we'd go up and harvest the plums with him. He'd dry them and by the time we'd go back to his place for Thanksgiving he'd always have those prunes saved just for us. They're my favourite fruit! I love prunes, you're eating a prune, this has got to be fate. What do you say?"
The man puts down his fruit and responds,
*"It's a date."*
Life Principle– Test Biblical Teachers, Rely On The Holy Spirit And Ask, “Is What I Am Hearing Man Centered Or God Centered?”
Life Principle– Test Biblical Teachers, Rely On The Holy Spirit And Ask, “Is What I Am Hearing Man Centered Or God Centered?”
Call to Action – altar call….
Call to Action – altar call….