Continuing Pastor Kyle’s message on false teachers, he points out that 2 Peter 2, Verse 2 says that people will follow false teachers leading down the wrong path as they “follow their sensuality”, which is basically sexual immorality. One of the ways that we spot a false teacher is to look at the things that they do in secret and to look at the deeds that their followers do in secret (which eventually always becomes known). Greed is also mentioned as one of the deeds that exposes a false teacher, but words are too. One of the ways that people are exploited by false teachers is with “false words”. It is clear that words and deeds matter. We are the summation of our thoughts, words, and actions. Our words and deeds arise from our thoughts. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he (a man) thinks in his heart, so is he (in word and deed).” Keeping our heart’s thoughts, words and deeds right is so much easier said than done.
Matthew 15:17-20 “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.”
So, our words and our deeds (actions or inactions) are just a reflection of what is in our hearts. All of God’s family ministers and need to keep their hearts right with God and on mission. But, in the flesh, we are every bit as sinful and prone to wander from God. When we are not right with God, our teaching starts getting unbiblical, their lives start getting off, and then others in the church who follow the teaching get misled as well and fall. Personal holiness is super important. Never hide your sin, but go get help for it to get back on God’s track and restored to an upright position before the Lord. How do we balance the reality of being on track with the Lord for the sake of Christ’s church with the soul care needs of the ministering saints?
There is a difference between someone struggling in sin and false teaching. We all struggle on this side of heaven because we are still in the sinful flesh (Galatians 5:16-17). Struggling is not what makes or breaks a person. Struggling is just evidence that we are human beings who need Jesus, the Savior of the world. By Christ, we have more than enough, we are an overcomer, and He adds weigh to our words and ministry. Mutual accountability, mutual honesty, vulnerability and personal responsibility are essential. We can be in an accountability group and lie or never open up about what is going on in our lives. Churches need to be committed to help people in their struggles with sin. Church leaders and members bear responsibility mutually.
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Likewise, we need to surround ourselves with people who love God, who love the Bible, who love you and who will (occasionally) tell us what we do not want to hear. These are the people that you want in your inner-circle of our life. Just like God judged the false teachers in the old and new Testament, He continues to judge new false teachers in Christ’s church in our time also. A lot of times, we put the blame of false teachings on a rogue pastor, but we forget that people are responsible for their own decisions too. If you choose to sin, that is not your pastor’s fault. Each of us with stand before Christ at the Great White Throne on Judgement Day and give an account of our thoughts, words and deeds in our life. People are often just seeking a sympathetic voice to their willful sin, and so they flock to preachers and people what already say what they want to hear or don’t talk about the sinful things in their life that they do not want to hear.
2 Chronicles 18:13 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak.”
False prophets have no divine authority when they speak. Jesus spoke of One with authority of God, because He did have that authority. Minister’s speech is subjective to the specific hearers of the message. False teachers in the Bible had a consistent message of good news, prosperity, promising peace and security in contrast to prophet that spoke of judgment that was coming. A lot of times, we just make a plan and expect God to bless it. But, we need to seek the Lord in our planning to make sure that we are doing the right thing by Him or we will make a lot of bad choices along the way. People will go to great efforts to bring people who will say what they want to her, but won’t bring in the one person down the street because they speak up with the Lord’s truth.
In Christ, Brian
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