The Deceitfulness of False Teachers
Part Two.
By Nick Bibile
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more
children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive;
Let us continue
where we stopped before. Notice on verse 14 it gives the picture of children
not mature Christians but children who are not strong but feeble and weak are
tossed to and from by false doctrines so they will be deceived. In the physical
sense if children are week they get sick and can even die. The reason why they
are weak is as they don’t get good food and lack of exercise, good vitamins. In
the spiritual sense it is the same thing. The word of God is our spiritual food
and the living water if we are not taught and given good spiritual food the
church will become weak in doctrine and can be gullible to follow all kinds of
false doctrines. The church may look good in their buildings and programs and
may have a lot of people with an outward form of worship but inwardly they are
weak, sickly as they are not strong in good doctrine.
Last time we saw
more from a doctrinal and a scriptural perspective and this time we are going
to see more from a practical perspective. One thing we need to remember that we
need to always compare the modern church to the New Testament and the
reformation that brought the church back to the basics, as they expounded the
sovereignty of God and his holiness, the sinfulness of man and the work of the
mediator. They confirmed that the scripture has the ultimate authority above
anything else.
The gospel, the
doctrines of the Bible and its truth will remain always the same and will not
change even in this modern times, this is a fundamental rule we need to
understand. Our Lord confirmed it by
saying the following.
Lu
The word of God is
from God and it’s from heaven and it’s holy without any defect or blemish
therefore we cannot add any thing from this earth, meaning any human wisdom,
any human ideas, any new things that man has discovered to the word of God.
Today we are
living in days where people don’t want to hear the truth, they don’t want to
hear of sin, the wrath of God, his justice and holiness but they want to hear
what pleases them. Remember the story in
the Old Testament when Jehoshaphat the king of
1Ki
But the king Jehoshaphat
wanted to hear what he liked to hear, and as we see the king’s reply later as
he said, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but
evil? (Verse 18)
People like pragmatism.
What is pragmatism? We say the word be pragmatic, the word pragmatism is to
solve the problem in the practical way not going to the root of the problem but
an easy fix.
Today pragmatism
has become a measuring rod to evaluate church growth. What I mean is, the church is measured upon
the size of the congregation and not upon the faithfulness to the Lord. People look
at the building of the church the size of the church, the equipments in the
church, the outward fancy appearance of the church and this is not from the
spirit of God but from the flesh. We see
majority of the church saying the times have changed, how can we preach the
gospel to those young people in the world unless we bring some entertainment to
them along with the gospel.
Pragmatism is
sweeping through the modern church through drama, worldly music, entertainment,
the pastor using humor and jokes to make the people entertained. I was
listening to a well known church pastor who was going through scripture by
scripture sermon where the topic was fasting but he amused his audience with
laughter as half of his sermon was illustrated on a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich! But the congregation was roaring in laughter! Yes there are many preachers today who want
to amuse the ears of the hearers than to profit their souls. Pragmatism says
don’t pay priority to the doctrines in the Bible but to the needs of the
people. Here is an interview on Larry King show with Robert Schuler.
Larry King:
"Reverend Schuler, how did you come to Pastor Rick Warren, whose book 'The
Purpose-Driven Life,' the major best seller, was referred to?"
We can see how
the word of God is mingled with humanism, human efforts the result is religion.
In an interview
with
Religion does
not have the answer it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has the answer, here we see
again Rick Warren’s approach in man centered and not God centered.
In Rick
Warren's article of the March 2005 Ladies home Journal. Here is a
sampling of this very unbiblical and harmful advice that is given to
unbelievers:
But what does
the Bible say:
2Ti 3:2 For men
shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God.
This is called the
seeker sensitive movement. It means to make the worship services more
attractive to the people of the world so they can bring a lot of unbelievers to
the church and they will be comfortable. God is not regarded as the holy God
but the center of worship is amusement and entertainment mingled with the
Bible. This movement is sweeping all across the world. When I was a missionary
to the Philippines in the poor areas most pastors said if they have money they
will buy a lot of musical instruments to attract the unbelievers to the church,
yes it has now penetrated all over the world. The authors of this movement are Rick Warren, Robert
Schuller, Bill Hybels and host of others. They use all the hi-tech entertainment
gimmicks to promote church growth instead of preaching the true gospel which
convicts and pierce the sinner’s heart. But we see the church has come down to the level
of the world.
Charles Spurgeon
said in his time the following.
"Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature" (Mark
"Dear
friends, we know that souls are not won by music, if they were it would be time
for preachers to give way to opera singers."
(Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, "Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 18, page 239)
Then again, "He gave some, apostles; and
some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers .., for the
work of the ministry" (Eph.
I would have 5 people who are truly saved and committed
to the Lord than having 20, 000 worldly people in the church. Yes, there is no
short cut to evangelism but witnessing the true gospel is the only way a sinner
can be saved. There is no short cut to church growth but preaching the word of
God should be the priority and the focus, the service should be God centered,
fearing the awesome majesty of God in his holiness and loving God through Jesus
Christ on what he had done for sinners like us.
"And they
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers...Praising God, and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
Acts
The church is
sanctified by the Lord and it should be separated to serve God not conforming
to the world.
Ro 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Jas 4:4 Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God.
1Jo
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
God does not need
your help but we need all the help from God as the ministry is not done by
human wisdom but by the power of God.
Zec 4:5 Then the
angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what
these be? And I said, No, my lord.
6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Learn a lesson
from Apostle Paul as he realized the power is not in him but in the word of God
and human pride and boasting not included in the word of God.
2Co 10:4 (For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
7 Do ye look on things after the outward
appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself
think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.
8 For though I should boast somewhat more of
our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your
destruction, I should not be ashamed:
9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify
you by letters.
10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and
powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
11 Let such a one think this, that, such as we
are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we
are present.
12 For we dare not make ourselves of the
number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they
measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves,
are not wise.
13 But we will not boast of things without our
measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to
us, a measure to reach even unto you.
14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our
measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you
also in preaching the gospel of Christ:
15 Not boasting of things without our measure,
that is, of other men's labors; but having hope, when your faith is increased,
that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly.
We see the modern churches have abandoned the
biblical preaching on God’s holiness, sin, justice and the wrath of God. Instead
they focus on the needs of humanity, relationship problems, and depressions and
how to live a prosperous life etc., the worldly pragmatic way of thinking promises bigger churches and more
people but in reality it stinks in the nostrils of God. The popularity and the majority are not always
right but God’s way is always the minority the un-popular way to the flesh and
the world.
Mt
14 Because
strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it.