Sermon Tone Analysis

I’d like to take a moment to address and clarify some things from last week’s discussion during our Fellowship & Focus hour.

I just a heads up - we won’t be taking questions or comments right now for the sake of time, as well as to give people time to think about this.

But, if you do have any questions or concerns, please come see me,

or you can feel free to bring them up in our Fellowship & Focus hour next week.

I want to talk about how we are to approach false teaching as a church.

And in the New Testament, we find 3 main ways that are to do so.

3 ways we correct false teaching:

Teaching correct doctrine - the saints can spot the counterfeits.

Teaching against incorrect doctrine - calling out when counterfeits have begun to circulate.

Teaching and warning against those who teach incorrect doctrine - or we could say, those who are trying to rip people off with counterfeit bills.

If I simply tell you,

“Hey, watch out, there’s some some con-artists around here to will rip you off”

that’s helpful, but it’s more helpful to know who it is that’s trying to scam people so we can avoid their deceptive schemes.

Now when it comes to these 3 points, the 3rd one is BY FAR the most controversial

especially because when people get it wrong - boy does it really get ugly fast!

However, the New Testament is chalk FULL of warnings NOT ONLY against false teaching,

BUT also against false teachERS who are called out by name.

In fact, 26 of the 27 New Testament books warn against false teaching or false teachers.

and it’s only the tiny book of Philemon that doesn’t.

And so the New Testament is full of instructions for how we are to handle both false teaching and false teachers.

For example: in Titus 1:9, Paul instructs pastors, saying:

Titus 1:9 (ESV)

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Romans 16:17 (NASB95)

Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

If we are “going to keep an eye” on those who teach doctrine contrary to the Word of God,

then we are going to have to know who it is that we are supposed to keep an eye on.

We are going to have to “mark them” as Paul says.

And why do we do this?

Two reasons:

Because God commands us to in His Word

Bad doctrine hurts people

And bad doctrine in one person, doesn’t tend to just stay there,

As the theologian Justin Peter’s puts it: “Error always leads to more error”

In fact, as Paul says, it spreads like Gangrene.

And this is always how it works.

Think of how many churches and denominations embraced smaller errors in the past, which eventually led to major errors!

What first started with women teaching men led to to women pastors, which led to embracing LGBTQ.

And that’s just one small instance of this happening:

So this stuff really does matter.

Do you know get’s the most YouTube views?

It’s not the conservative, Bible preaching pastors,

it’s the Word of Faith false teachers who are promising people health, wealth, and financial blessing from God.

and it’s because, as 2 Timothy 4:3 says:

People don’t want to be told about sin, death, and hell,

they want to be told that “God loves them and has a perfect plan for their life and that plan includes material and physical blessing!”

And I find the saddest about this Word of Faith/prosperity gospel teaching, is how many people buy into it, and then when they find out it’s a lie they turn their back from Christianity and never look back because they think THAT is what Christianity is...

But it’s not.

That stuff is nothing but new-age idolatry with Christian terminology.

And I don’t make this claim lightly.

And so if we love people and care for their souls, we must be willing to say hard truths and call out both false teaching and false teachers by name, if the situation calls for it.

And as we said before, we see this pattern all throughout the New Testament.

For example:

2 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

These are just a few of the many, many examples,

But, a bit pat of 2 Corinthians has to do with Paul calling out false teachers by name.

In that book, Paul is engaged with “THE SUPER” APOSTLES,” and when he calls then “super” he’s being sarcastic, because what he says they really are is false teachers.

And when it comes to false teachers, as Paul warns in Galatians 1:9.

1 Timothy 1:3–4 (ESV)

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

And so what Paul is saying here to young Pastor Timothy, is to not only call out false teaching - like the Word of Faith and Prosperity Gospel - but to CHARGE those “certain persons” not to teach it.

But why?

Why can’t we just teach the 10 theological reasons the Prosperity Gospel is wrong and let people connect the dots?

Well, for one, as we’ve looked at briefly, Scripture commands us to call out false teachers over and over again- and to be honest, that’s reason enough.

For what God says, we do.

But secondly, we call out false teachers by name because false teachers are trixy!

They are good at making themselves look like they are servants of Christ, when the truth is, they are servants of Satan!

Ya know, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked with a Christians who will agree that the Prosperity Gospel and the Word of Faith movement are dangerous and unbiblical, but then later on they tell me how much they like Joel Olsteen, or Kenneth Copland, Joyce Meyers, or Steven Furtick...

And I’m just like....

I’m dead serious.

The theologian Justin Peters - who’s gonna be speaking in Crosslake actually this fall - tells a funny but really sad story about this.

He was talking to a lady who said: “My two favorite preachers are John Macarthur and Joel Olsteen...

So why does this kind of stuff happen with Christians?

Why don’t they see the contradiction?

Why can so many Christians see false doctrine when you describe it,

but not see it in their favorite false TV preacher?

As I was preparing for this discussion this last week, I was listening to Justin Peters and another pastor, and they helped explain why this is the case.

The first reason is, we are visual learners (which is why Jesus used illustrations so much when He taught.

)

See, if I describe an elephant to a blind person, he get somewhat of an idea of what an elephant is like

But if that blind person can suddenly see and then an elephant walks into the room, there’s a pretty decent chance he’s not going to that what he’s seeing is an elephant.

And that’s because there is something about seeing that helps us learn,

And it’s because we are visual learners.

The 2nd reason Christians often don’t recognize false teachers is because we live in a day and age where the church is, probably, the most uninformed Christians to ever walk the planet.

I’m not trying to be mean on us here.

But it’s true.

And to be fair, some of it isn’t totally our fault.

The 3rd reason is because of favoritism.

See, if I tell you that I don’t care for dogs in general, you might not think much of it.

But if you have me over for dinner, and I start telling you how smelly, annoying, and untrained your dog is - you’re probably going to take offense by it (even if it’s true!)

And the reason is - he’s your little FLUFFLY!

And ain’t no one get to talk bad about Mr. Fluffy!

The same is true for false teachers.

If someone comes along and tells you how dangerous false teaching is, you probably won’t think too much of it.

But, if someone comes along and starts calling out a teacher you like for false teaching, you’re probably going to take it a little personal.

And ESPECIALLY if that false teacher really helped you get you fix your life in a major way!

Maybe they helped you get your finances figured out

Maybe their teaching helped save your marriage

OR - maybe they even they led you to Christ!

And if they helped you so much with all of that,