Beware of false teachers......

This post is mostly scripture, but wanted to share as there is a good bit of false teaching in the world today and, unfortunately, not all of it is easy to tease out as it does a good job of preaching love.   However, pay close attention, as even the devil knows scripture.   This is evident in that he used scripture when tempting Jesus as described in Matthew 4:1-11.    Further, the bible also calls out that even demons know who Jesus is (and shudder) as told in James 2:19.   

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe in truth. 1 Timothy 4:1-3 (NASB)

Note for 1 Timothy 4:1-3: the reference forbidding people to marry and staying away from foods  is a sample of the false teaching that was occurring in Ephesus.   As is the case with false teaching, there is generally elements of truth but the deception, in this case, is in making human works a pre-requisite for salvation.   This is a distinguishing mark of all false teaching.   Personally, I also wonder if the use of the term food could be considered a metaphor as we are also taught that we are to "live by the word of God alone" - Matthew 4:4 and Deuteronomy 8:3. 

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (NASB)

Note for Romans 1:28-32:   The assertion here that "God gave the over to a depraved mind" indicates that God has tested man's mind and found them worthless/useless.   Also, given that we have free will, God will not force us to follow him.   The reason for this is due to love.   Just as you can't force someone to love you, God will not force us to love Him.   If He did that, then it is not love for Him that we experience and give to Him.   It would make us more comparable to mindless drones.   God wants us to follow him of our own accord and not because He forces us to do something.   

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NASB)

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, brining swift destruction upon themselves.   Many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgement from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.   2 Peter 2:1-3 (NASB)

Note for 2 Peter 2:1-3:   Please pay attention to this.   While it may seem that false teachers are raised to esteem or allowed to continue in their teaching, their judgement is coming and is not idle.   It will come.   If not in this life, then certainly in eternity when they have to answer for their teaching and actions.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NASB)

For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. Hebrews 6:7-8 (NASB)

"The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance." Luke 8:14-15 (NASB)

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the firsts spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. Hebrews 2:1-4 (NASB)

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation for yourself and for those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:16 (NASB)

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:6-11 (NASB)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness. 2 Timothy 2:15-16 (NASB)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Titus 2:11-15 (NASB)

Note for Titus 2:11-15: Our salvation is via faith and our following of Christ.  Any other path leads to destruction.  Please realize that God loves us too much to force us to spend time with Him in eternity.   From my perspective, He doesn't send us to hell rather we choose to go there.

Faith vs. Works

I am sure that you have heard this debate a number of times.   Are we saved by faith?   Works?   A combination of the two? 

I number of us have likely heard it said that we are saved by acceptance of Jesus and placing our faith in Him alone.   However, is placing our faith in Jesus alone enough to save us? 

My belief is that having faith in Jesus is not enough.   While it is a great first step, James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe and know who Jesus is:

James 2:19(NIV)  "You believe that there is one God.   Good!  Even then demons believe that and shudder."

However, the demons are definitely not in the express lane for heaven.   So, any gospel that speaks of needing faith alone, I would humbly submit, is a false gospel. 

I also think that we can all agree that we can't work ourselves into heaven.   No number of works, apart from repentance and acceptance of Jesus will get us into Heaven.   Think about the Pharisees and the Sadducees for moment.   Each kept the law to the letter, but neither group had any faith in God.   They were all too busy trying to earn their right standing before God by carefully following the rules.   They did so without actually honoring or loving God in their hearts.   I don't think it is a far stretch to believe that they would ready and willing to stand before God on judgement day and boast about their works.     This is evidenced in the parable Jesus gave us regarding the prayer of the Pharisee vs. the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14 (NASB):

"And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.   The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people; swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.   I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get.'   But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'    I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I don't think it is a far stretch to be able to imagine the Pharisees and Sadducees pushing themselves to the front of the line on judgement day and boasting of their works.   In fact, Jesus provides us guidance that indicates that they and, unfortunately, other Christians will likely hear, "Depart from me, I never knew you" on that day.   This is evidenced in Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB):

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.   Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'   And I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me; you who practice lawlessness.'"

So far, I think that we can see that faith alone nor works alone are sufficient.   You see, Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7:24-27 (NASB):

"Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.   And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house; and yet it still did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.   Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.   The ran fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell - and great was its fall."  

The emphasis (bold) to hears and acts/does not act above are mine.   I added those to help highlight the point that when we "hear" God's word, we don't always listen/absorb what we are told.   Just because we use our sense of hearing, doesn't mean that we actually hear - if that makes sense ;-).    When we hear, understand and accept God's word, that results in action on our part.   When we hear God's word, but either don't understand or accept it, those words don't sink in and we continue to grope around in the darkness, leaning on our own understanding or the worlds teaching.   This leads us to place our faith in false doctrine/knowledge and ultimately builds our house on the sand - a house that will eventually fall. 

Perhaps the most clear teaching on this comes to us in the book of James.   James 2:14-26 say:

James 2:14-26 (NIV): "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?"   Can such a faith save them?  Suppose a brother, or a sister is without clothes and daily food.   If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?   In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by actions, is dead.   But someone will say, 'You have faith, I have deeds.'   Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.   You believe that there is one God.  Good!   Even the demons believe that - and shudder.   You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?   Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter?   You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.   And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend.  You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not faith alone.   In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

Another illustration that I will share with you comes from Michael Chriswell (https://relentlessheart.com).   I ran into this illustration in one of Micheal's bible study's and that it was a very clear illustration regarding our need for faith and works:

"Let's say Bill Gates grafts you into his will and says you will inherit his $10 million second home when he dies, as a free gift.  You could never afford this house, but he even lets you go ahead and move in and all he asks in return is that you maintain it.   Not only could you not likely ever afford to live in that house, but you couldn't even afford to maintain it.   However, you have no worries because he even gives you a cleaning, maintenance, and improvement budget to do so.   He then promises that no one from the outside will ever be able to take the home from you, or to sell it out from under you (think Romans 8:38-39). 

Romans 8:38-39 (NASB): "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

So you move in and soon after you start having friends over to see your new amazing free house from Bill Gates, that not of them will believe until they see it.   During one visit you take a break from your friends to sit down at your beautiful office kitchen to take care of a few maintenance projects you have going with the house.   One of your friends walks by and sees you and asks what you are doing.   You explain that you are writing out a few checks for various projects on the house.   Your friend, with a frowned look on his face, says, "Wait a second, you said this house was a free gift....this isn't a free gift if you have to pay money to maintain it."   You then explain, "Oh, it was part of the agreement and actually Bill deposits money into my account each week so that I can maintain the house."   My responsibility is simply apply the payments. 

Could anyone now rightly say that if you agreed to these maintenance terms, you are now earning the free gift?  Not at all!   You are simply obeying the agreement of maintaining the gracious gift he is giving you, and you can't even take credit for that, because he gives you money to maintain it. 

Now, suppose you start taking the gift for granted and you start leaving the doors unlocked when you leave, having questionable individuals over, or spending the maintenance money and your time on other things, at the neglect of caring for the house.  When Bill comes to make his final settlement with you and transfer the deed over to you, would he not be justified in taking back your inheritance since you lost respect for it, and you didn't do his will in the agreement?   Yes, he would."

You see, while we have done nothing nor could we ever do anything that would earn us our salvation - we are saved by the grace of God alone (Ephesians 2:8 (NASB): "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;") - we do still have an obligation to maintain the gift.   We maintain our gift with the grace that He has given us - Romans 8:12-13: "So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live."   Scripture tells us in Matthew 7:21 and 1 John 2:17 that only those who do God's will are going to make it to heaven:

Matthew 7:21 (NASB): "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven will enter."

1 John 2:17 (NASB):  "The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

No one can do God's will apart from God's enabling grace - so at no time can it be said that we earned anything by our doing.   If we don't do our part - empowered by His grace - the time will come when it will be said that we squandered His gift and grace, even if we didn't do it intentionally.

Do we know who we are?

Do we truly know who we are in Christ?   Do we actually show any real evidence that we do?  I am sure many of us can say that we show several of the following traits:

• We show evidence of profound words and teaching to others, speak truth in the tongues of men and angels........    Yet, we rise up in anger at our brother, making as as guilty as any murderer.  
• We show evidence of knowing the scripture and associated doctrine and all knowledge.........   Yet, we do not love the lowest person as Christ, making our knowledge worthless.....
• We give all of our possessions to the poor and surrender our bodies to be burned and actually have faith to move mountains and heal the sick........  Yet these profit us nothing if His love does not rule our hearts.
• We call ourselves born again, having been baptized in the water and the Spirit.   We are consistently take communion, sing in choirs, serve the church, pay tithes, read the scriptures, fast when called to humble ourselves, gathering in Bible studies, attending conferences, going on missions, submitting to authorities, and rehearsing our arguments......   Yet, if rivers of love, joy and peace do not flow from us like living waters, all of the above mentioned things profit us nothing.  

If you can identify with any of the above, if you feel like you are still missing something, you likely are.    

While it has been said that self-involvement and selfishness are the root of man's problems, I would submit to you that it is more likely pride that keeps us from being who we are meant to be in God.   What do I mean by that?   Well, we are all insecure to varying degrees.   We are insecure because it is born into us.   From the moment we are born, and the doctor cuts our umbilical cord, we are in a state where we were warm, well taken care of and felt loved into an alien world that feel hostile.   We are cold, may be hungry and are trying to figure out how we can get back to the place where we feel loved.  Not that any of us can remember this far back, but I can easily see ourselves frantically screaming, "Who is going to take care of me?   Who is going to keep me warm?   Who is going to protect me?   Who is going to feed me?   Who will love me?"   All of these things likely culminated in our screaming and crying at the top of our lungs.   

This likely isn't so different from the feelings Adam and Eve experienced after they had been expelled from the Garden of Eden.   You see, the sin of Adam and Eve resulted in being cut off from the only life source that they had ever known.   At that moment, all of our spiritual umbilical cords had been cut.   This has resulted in a deep insecurity, which aches in all of us from the sin that separates /separated us from Jesus.  

As such, we find ourselves unable to fully embrace our identity.   We search for not only our identity but also acceptance and love by finding other ways to reach what we so desperately need.   We determine our significance based on other peoples perspectives of us.   We find ourselves thinking: 

• If I can only do well in sports.   If I could excel, then I will be honored.
• If I can do well in school, I can measure up to the expectations of my teachers and parents.
• If I did well in romantic relationships, if this one person loves me, I will have found love.
• If I achieve wealth, if I can just land this new job and climb the corporate ladder, then I will have security.  

We find ourselves chasing after our identities and who we are by following society's blueprint.   And what many of us find, some because we have reached some of the above stated things, is that we are still lacking.   There is something inauthentic about the blueprint that we are following, because no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we gain or how much love and acceptance we gain from the world, it is never enough.   

Why is that?   It is because God created us to find our love and value in Him, not apart from Him!   We have forgotten who we are in Christ!  You see, it is as Jesus taught, that I am in Him and He is in me, in the same way that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.   This is a profound union that He said could only be known with the help of the Spirit of truth, whose main purpose is to help us walk in that union.   If we do that, then we will show evidence of it but the love we show, as it will be a direct reflection of the love He has shown for us.  

You see, many of us in trying to be good christians are still living in our sin while professing that we are in Christ.   We miss the point that Christ has covered our sins and that we should literally be dying to our old way of life and letting go of our old sinful behavior.   We should not still be saying things along the lines of, "sure, I still have my vices, but at least I'm not like so and so sitting over there.   That should be worth something - right?"   That would be wrong.  Because in doing that we are still denying Christ control of our lives.   It is Him that is supposed to live in us - not the other way around!   You see, as christians, for me to live is Christ - just as Paul said.   To fully gain the love, security and happiness we are all so desperately yearning for we have to let go of our pride.  To do that, we have to let go of ourselves and let God have control.    We have to live lives of courage and realize that God is the same God that he was yesterday, today and tomorrow and that He is fully in control.    

Until we do that, we will continue to deny who we were created to be.   Until we realize that humility a major key to finding deep security and joy in Christ, we will continue to grope around in the darkness.