False prophets, false doctrines and apostasy. I know that every one of our hearts are very alert to these things in these the days that we live in. Many of you have gone through experiences yourself where you can speak firsthand, having had to wrestle through many things, trying to find your way, wondering if you’re doing rights, wondering if you are all mixed up trying to figure out what’s going on in this church.
This subject of false prophets and false doctrines and apostasy is one of the major themes of each one of the pastoral epistles. So surely we shall look at it as we are studying the pastoral epistles.
In 1 Timothy 4:1,2 Paul he speaks these words, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.“
These two verses cover all three of the words in the title for the message.
It’s all in those two little verses. Paul wants Timothy to see and hear some warnings about the purity of the church, warnings about the expression of Christ upon the earth, warnings about what’s going to happen to this beautiful faith that he’s been over flowing with.
These latter times, of course, are the times Timothy is living in. This is a warning to Timothy about what he will encounter as a minister of the word. Paul is not talking about today. He is talking about the last days of the Old Covenent that was ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.
But, this same warning is applicable to all Christians since that time. Men have conitnued to take heed to seducing spirits and false teachings. The warning was specific to Timothy, yet universal to the church.
Paul says, “the Spirit speakseth expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, Speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
That’s what Paul says. Seducing spirits. You know what a seducing spirit is. You know what seduce means? Surely you do. Every one of you men know. It’s a spirit that draws you into error and into sin.
Paul says in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith. I don’t know what your theology is and all of that, but plain sense tells me that you can’t depart from something that you don’t have.
Plain sense tells me that these verses mean what they say, that in the last times, some shall depart from the faith. The faith that Paul got a hold on that changed him from a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious man. Paul says they will depart from the faith. How could this be?
They will give heed to seducing spirits and they will give heed to doctrines of devils or doctrines that devils teach. Doctrines of devils teach doctrines that seducing spirits teach.
They teach new revelations. Something that church never saw before. Men are sedueced and see something that the church has never seen before. Seducing spirits say, “Nobody will understand you. Nobody will understand you. Watch it. Watch it.”
That’s what seducing spirits say. “You are a special messenger. I’m giving you new revelations that the church has never seen before. No one will understand you. Be careful who you share it with. You’re getting new revelations from God that the church has never had before.”
I tell you, that’s a dangerous place to be in and I’ve seen many a young, sincere man fall into that very trap. And they’re still wandering in a maze of spirits. Still 10 years later, they wander in a maze of spirits thinking that they are special prophets. I’ve seen men who have been in the faith 40 years also give heed to these doctrines.
Some will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines that devils teach, and because of that, they depart from the faith. That would be a tragedy if that’s all that happened, but that isn’t all that happens through them. They don’t just depart from the faith. Verse two says, they become false teachers. They become teachers of these new spirits and these new doctrines. They become teachers speaking lies and hypocrisy. Having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
We live in a day when these things are happening all around us, just as they did in Timothy’s day.
“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee,“1 Timothy 4:16.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,” 2 Timothy 4:1-4.
Paul instructs Timothy to preach the word. Stay on the word, be instant in season, out of season. Use the word to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They will have ears that they will want to be tickled. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables.
Each and every one of us can be tempted to turn to false teachings. They are by their very nature seductive. They sound good. We see books put out by “Christian authors,” some very well-respected, that teach error.
We need, like Timothy, to stay focused on sound doctrine. We need to study the word of God. But we need not be fearful.
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”You don’t need to be afraid. God did not leave us here to let us be afraid. Fear and faith don’t go together. Those two walk very far apart. We don’t need to be afraid.
Paul has clearly defined for us how to discern a false teacher and false teachings and the apostasy that comes from it. We are not left in the dark about these things.
We’re gonna take a few exercises here. We’re going to take these things, these beautiful tools of discernment that God has given us, and we’re going to look at them and put them in modern day context and help you to see you truly can discern. Your certainty does not come by what you get in your heads. It comes by what you have in your hearts and what you have in your life. The greatest discernment that you will ever have is a life that is hidden with Christ in God. Ifou don’t have that, you don’t have any discernment. The greatest sermon that you’ll have is the living reality of a Christ living inside of you.
How do you know what is right and what is wrong? The teaching must be Christ centered. It must be after Christ, not after any other thing. It must be Christ centered. You must see the simplicity that is in Christ. It must be that kind of teaching. Not complicated, but the simplicity that is in Christ.
It must be grace that flows from a relationship with Christ Jesus. It must be that, and it must be after godliness. It must be after godliness. It must line up with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ according to godliness and the doctrine that is after godliness. It must be both of those.
It must be sound according to the word. It must agree with scripture and come from scripture, not be read into scripture. Most false doctrines start with a premise. Then that idea is read into selected verses to support that premise. It will sound good. It will sound Biblical, except, instead of originating from the scripture and flowing into the man, it originates with the man and is poured, even forced, into scripture.
What about the teacher? He must be full of the doctrine of Christ first. John says he must be full of the doctrine of Christ. He must be full of the love of Christ. He must be full of the character of Christ. He must be walking with Jesus Christ in a very clear and evident way. He must be living a clearly godly life that his word center in its expressions. You must be able to see that in his life.
“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father,” 1 John 2:24. A godly teacher will have sound doctrine.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous,” 1 John 5:3. A godly teacher will love God and walk upright with God.
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” 1 John 4:1. Like Paul, John warned bout the false prophets and seducing spirits that were already at work in the first century. We must try, or judge, the spirits, the teachers, according to the doctrine they teach and the lives that they live.
Jesus also warned his listeners, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves,” Matthew 7:15
They come in sheep’s clothing, they’re deceitful. They’re crafty. They’re going to look like sheep. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening. Oh, that’s enough to make you afraid, isn’t it?
Look what he says in verse 16, “You shall know them by their fruits.” You shall know them by the way they live. And then he said some things which seem a bit absurd to us, but you know, it seems like God needs to say absurd things to us Americans, because Americans seem to run after every fellow.
“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of
He is evil. I don’t care what he said. I don’t care how you say it. I don’t care what miracles he does. If a tree is bringing forth evil fruit, it’s a corrupt tree, no matter how he looks or what he says, it’s a corrupt tree.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Then you shall know the teachers, you shall know them by the way they live. We can do that. It’s okay to be a fruit inspector.
Wherefore by their fruits
ye shall know them.
Don’t sit yourself down at the feet of somebody that you don’t know. There’s so many opportunities and so many tapes and videos and radio programs and TV programs and all those things. Don’t sit yourself down at the feet of somebody that you don’t know how they live. Which way are the people going? Are they vibrantly in love with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he their all in all? Are they excited about their relationship that they have through the blood of Christ Jesus and do they live a God’s word centered life, a life that is manifested in godliness?
I’m not saying that they’re perfect, but that you can see it in their home and you’re seeing in the children and you’re seeing it in their work and you’re seeing by the way they talk and you see it by the way they live and you see it by the way they act.
You can tell which way they are going, whether it’s moving more and more toward the Lord Jesus and godliness or other sliding slowly, so slowly away. There are many examples of that today. Aren’t there people who would say all the right things and they wouldn’t have some of the right things. Yet you can see in their lives and if you watched them for years, there’s this departure, little by little by little.
And know this for sure. When there is a departure from the living word, there will also be a departure from the written word. It’s always there. You have you ever been to a dead liberal church? That’s a very interesting combination, but there are many of them. There are many of them in this America that we live in. Liberal churches who departed from the living word and then departed from the written words.
Now they’re dead. They’re dead. It’s like a Bible says, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,” 1 Timothy 5:6
It’s not enough to have some right things in a life. You must also have him. How do we discern all these things? It is not enough to say, “Jesus, Jesus, I love Jesus.” You must also have a godly life. There must both be there. You must have them both to be sound.
You know Jesus spoke in the sermon on the mouth about the straight and narrow way. What is
You know, you can get off both sides. You could fall off the one side and think they are in the center. They know the right things to do and do them. Many people do that well. That’s not the straight and narrow way and many people will do that. They will do many right things. They will put upon themselves many acts of self denial. They will make many acts of separation. They will have many things that they say that you must do and then they will lift that up and say, “this is the narrow way.”
That’s not the narrow way. That my friend, that’s a ditch.
But others make just as big of a mistake and walk off in the ditch on the other side. They sing, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus was wonderful to me.”
Did you look at the life and there’s nothing there. There’s no substance, there’s no sadness, there’s no godliness, there’s no beauty of holiness there, and yet they’ll take that and they’ll lift it up and say, “this is the straight and narrow way.”
That’s not the straight and narrow way. You’re in the ditch and how how often they do it. One’s in this side of the ditch. We’ll look at the ones in that side of the ditch and say, “we’re on the road.”
The ones over here on the liberal side of the ditch look at the ones over there, on this religious side of the ditch and they say, “we’re on the road.”
The fact of the matter is, they’re both in the ditch. The straight and narrow away is a strength in a narrow way. You won’t walk on that one unless you are totally unreservedly sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ with a whole heart desire to live and walk a godly life upon this earth. That’s the only way he would walk on the highway.
It’s the challenge of every one of us and for every generation that we make the choice that we’re going to walk on the straight and narrow way.
Every single one of us
The straight and narrow way is more than a system of doing. The straight and narrow way is a holy walk with a holy God through the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord. That’s the straight and narrow way and it produces a life of godliness and discernment.
You’ll be able to discern the right from the false. You’ll be able to see you all understand what a false prophet is. If you just get there on that road and stay there on that road and walk there, you will understand everything else that doesn’t line up to that. That is the discernment that we need and that’s what Paul is saying in first and second Timothy.
It’s not enough to have some right things. It’s not enough to say you love Jesus. No. Think about some examples of how this has worked out. We will take Paul first since we’re in the pastoral epistles. Paul and the Judaizers. They came along after him. They came along after Paul was there.
Here comes Paul to a new city and he goes to the synagogue. He preaches Christ Jesus and him crucified to the people. The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. God in some mysterious, miraculous way starts working. People start getting born again as they hear the of the good news that Jesus Christ will save them.
You see their lives transformed by that simple gospel. He preached to them there. Then he has to them together into a little group and he begins to preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. He begins to preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ at all. They become established in Christ and he sees a relationship coming into their lives and then they become. They begin to have a sweet fellowship with God. He sees them growing and the spirit of God working in their lives.
He goes his way to the next city. He leaves them all. They’re gazing on the him, the finisher of their faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame and is now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God on high. They’re looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith. And then here come the Judiaizers after him.
They say, “Hey Man, I believe in Jesus. Jesus is God. That’s right. That’s right. But watch it. Watch it.
Oh listen, you got to keep the mosaic law. You guys don’t understand all of this. You’ve got to keep the mosaic law. The sabbath keepers. Get this and do that. Don’t eat this. Eat this. Keep this feast. Keep that feast.”
And they come in and what they do is they pull those sweet, tender hearts, the focus of their hearts on a bunch of things, as good as they may seem, but a bad thing.
The writer of Hebrews 13:8,9 says it better than I can say. He says this, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and
That’s exactly what happened. Judaizers came in and the focus of the hearts of those tender new Christians was put on meats and fish and circumcision and new moons and service keeping and all of that stuff.
Notice now how Paul corrects the problem. He can’t run there. He can’t get into play like we can fly there for the weekend and straighten everything out. So he write a letter. What does he write in there? He preaches Christ Jesus to them and him crucified. He tells them what Christ has done. He speaks to them about Christ being their all and all. He tells them that Christ is in him, is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He tells them that they are complete in him and he goes on and on, and what does he do? He pulls their focus back on Jesus. That’s what he does.
You see how he discerned the false. They come with their bags full of religion and try to set up a new system at a new way to do it. After Paul has already established them in Christ. And so what does Paul do? He takes care of religion. He preaches Christ. Christ and only Christ. Christ in Him, crucified over and over again. He begins again to speak to them about the glories of Christ and the unsearchable riches of Christ, and he draws their hearts focus back there. That’s how he took care of it.
“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,” Ephesians 3:8,9.
We need to get in right relationship with the Lord Jesus. Get right with God. Get in the word. Stay there. Hebrews 3:14 “For we are made partakers of
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