Detecting a false teacher - Titus 1:10-16 - Sunday Sermon

We are still in Titus chapter 1 if

Titus 1 · chapter mention

you're following along with the Bible,

but we'll also have it on the

screens. Heavenly Father, thank you for

the ways that you revealed your truth

about the gospel to your Apostle Paul

and the amount of time he

spent studying your word so that he

could faithfully teach it. And thank you

that you have those words recorded and

that we're able to know in our spirits

that they're true and that they contain

the hope of eternal life, but also

things that accord with godliness in our

own lives. I pray today that we would

understand your warnings about those

that contradict that gospel in a way

that

um that removes its saving power and all

kinds of other ways. And I pray that we

would take very seriously all the

warnings that you have in your

scriptures uh to oppose such people, but

also to call them to repentance and to

call those who may be deceived by that

to repentance as well. And so it's a

heart for their eternal life and not

just a message of condemnation that we

preach. And we pray that you would help

us to uh to be aligned with your spirit

in that. And we pray these things in

Jesus name. Last week I gave you guys uh

somewhat of a metaphor or an image of

the idea of honeycombing. Um I found out

someone in our congregation was a

concrete engineer and I said the right

words which was nice. I just repeated

what Wikipedia said about that. But

honeycombing is basically when there are

air bubbles um or any kind of pockets of

air in uh foundation or any kind of

pylons or pillars in concrete. And I

want to revisit that idea. um

construction crews have ways of um

vibrating the concrete so that the

bubbles rise to the surface and there's

no honeycombing. And now um unless those

construction crews are cutting corners,

um I I'm guessing this rarely happens

and I looked up for court cases where um

they're where the prosecution was trying

to prove intent that the construction

company had intentionally caused

honeycombing. Um, and there are very few

of that. Although there are laws on the

books that if you intentionally

destabilize a structure and if uh it in

any way crumbles and falls and someone

dies that you could be charged with with

murder. Um, uh, proving intent is

extremely difficult. And so the cases

where they've been able to prove intent

are very few. But they have been able to

prove uh what is called reckless

negligence which is well you should have

known that you needed to make sure this

honeycombing doesn't happen. Um you saw

it once the molds were taken off you did

nothing about it and then this thing

collapsed and so a civil engineer um or

a construction crew me may be held

liable. In the case of a charge of

murder, um if there was actual intent uh

beforehand to cause such damage to a

structure, you could get multiple life

sentences for having done that if there

are multiple people that died in um in a

collapse like that. But even if it's um

manslaughter one or manslaughter two

which are also basically just

differentiated between how much intent

the court is able to prove there can be

uh lesser life sentences but still

significant prison time for doing that.

So it would be a very serious thing if

somebody intended to destabilize a

building during it the foundation

pouring or during the pouring of of

different pillars. And I want you to

think about imagine if um someone had

done that to the house you're living in

and you had no idea and then a part of

it collapses on one of your children.

God forbid that. The reason why I'm I'm

saying that though is that in this case,

the things that Paul is warning us

against and things he's calling us to

stand against are uh people who are

teaching either a false false gospel, a

legalistic gospel, and several other

different kinds of false teaching that

we will walk through um in what I would

call like their archetypal forms. They

just keep repeating themselves

throughout history. There's not that

many new ways to come up with

contradicting the Bible and they repeat.

But um if that's intentional and you and

and you know that's intentional, the

building collapse would be like watching

one of your kids get deceived away from

the truth. And it happens more than you

know. Um maybe you do know uh how often

it happens. But as I was studying for

this particular passage and studying

passages about false teaching, I was

amazed at just how many warnings there

are in the Old Testament and the New

Testament about teaching something that

is blatantly contradictory of the gospel

of the truth of God's word. So many

warnings. So, I've learned that when God

repeats himself, especially when he

repeats himself over and over and over

again, it shows us the the intensity and

the urgency for us to be um for us to

have an urgency and for us to be duly

warned about that thing. And it's

interesting if you have not had

experience with someone teaching

something blatantly false from scripture

or had somebody else affected by that in

a way that deeply harmed their faith or

maybe that caused them to walk away from

relationship with you or walk away from

relationship with the church. Remember

last week we talked about the mortar of

the building blocks. We're the spiritual

stones. Jesus is the foundation, but the

mortar is uh relationships to him and

relationships to one another. And so

that's what ultimately crumbles when

people are deceived by uh false

teaching. And I have no intent to say

that every different interpretation is

false teaching. We need to be very

careful um uh not to be too extreme

about that kind of thing. And so that's

never what I'm intending even if maybe

it sounds like that. It's not what I'm

intending to mean. Uh you're going to

see me walk through this scripture um

Titus 1 verse 10-16 and mention

Titus 1:10–16

different kinds of examples of false

teaching, but they're all uh really

highlevel serious black and white kind

of issues, not things that I would

consider we need to have charity over of

of different um

uh interpretation that doesn't have

malicious intent behind it. Okay? So

that's not what I'm talking about. But

the reason why I mentioned the idea, the

image of you having someone you loved or

knew and cared about die in a building

collapse, um, false teaching doesn't

just like cause physical death, but it

it can cause deception that makes a

shipwreck of somebody's faith for time.

Um, it can cause serious relational

damage uh in people's hearts in

relationship to their elders, their

teachers, their friends in church, other

Christians, and it can be extremely

painful. But if you have not experienced

that damage, it's not as easy to take it

as seriously as if you have experienced

that damage. So, anybody that has had

any kind of building collapse and

affected somebody uh would take very

seriously the importance of following

the guidelines and the safety

precautions and any kind of inspection

rules that there are. And they would not

want their crew or anybody else or even

if they didn't work in that industry to

take shortcuts. But you would you would

not really think of somebody who took

shortcuts on the same level as like we

have a word for it. That's reckless

negligence. It's bad. But it's not the

same thing as murder in the first or

second degree where you intentionally

did something that you knew could lead

to somebody's death or even pre-planned

that would lead to somebody's death.

Right? That's murder in the first

degree. It's like when you actually it's

not a crime of passion or something, but

you pre-planned this like you

premeditated that thing. So, one thing

that I want us to realize, and Paul will

make this point, is that false teachers

know what they're doing. They know what

they're doing. And it's very hard to

prove that intent in some cases that I

want to show you that too. The kinds of

pieces of evidence that you can start

putting together to see there's bad

intent here. You know, I'll give you an

example uh of not false teaching. You

know that some churches will baptize

infants. We call that infant baptism.

And some churches believe in believers

baptism. This would be a classic example

of an interpretational issue. I've I've

never even heard anybody, but I also

think it would be outrageous to claim

that anybody that teaches infant baptism

is a false teacher. You can disagree

with that. Our church does. We're a

believer's Baptist church. It means that

we look for a believable profession of

faith before you're baptized. But I have

friends that are infant Baptists and

we'll discuss scripture and and and go

to the places where we disagree and uh

it might even be in some cases a sharp

disagreement. But neither of us thinks,

"Oh, that person's an intentional false

teacher. I don't even think it's

recklessly negligent. I think there's

people that in the sincerity of their

hearts think that what the very best

thing is according to scripture is to

baptize infants." So that would not be

an example of either reckless negligence

or intent. But some of the examples Paul

mentions here, he says that their, for

example, their motive is shameful gain.

They're teaching that and their intent

is to make money with it. Pedalling the

gospel for profit kind of thing. So, one

of the hardest thing to do, but one of

the things that's important to learn how

to do is discern when someone has a

malicious intent with what they're

teaching. Because if you realize they

have a malicious intent, then then

there's an urgency to warn people about

that. Just like if you saw someone doing

something on a construction crew at your

neighbor's building project that you

would knew, maybe you're a construction

engineer yourself, so you've been

trained up in this, or you're a a

concrete engineer, and you know what

they're doing is not just like a mistake

or they're leaving something out. Even

then, you might, you know, want to say

something, but they're doing something

that, you know, purposefully

destabilizes the foundation. You would

want to warn your neighbor, hey,

something's wrong here. Make sure the

inspector looks at what happened. I

think I see something fishing going on.

Right. The same thing happens here in

scripture that um it's not just the

elders, it's not just pastors, it's the

entire congregation that needs to be

warned and be able to discern what false

teaching is and then oppose it. But

there's an extremely important point

that without which our opposition of

such false teaching would turn into

hypocrisy. Um, and we'll talk about the

the very way that Paul is opposing the

circumcision party. And that

circumcision party is not just about

people that wanted people to get

circumcised, but it's a sign that you're

putting yourself under the law of Moses,

right? So, the reason why that's

hypocrisy is that nobody can actually

keep the law. And these people were

teaching that you actually can. You need

to get circumcised. And that's like one

of the first works of the law. And and

if you keep the law, it's works

righteousness. You've heard it before.

then you'll be right with God. And they

were in the cretan church. We're this is

a letter that is written to Titus while

he's on cree so that he would put things

in order um uh for the sake of the

knowledge of truth that leads to

godliness. So right doctrine that leads

to morally right behavior and practice.

And the the

the problem with denouncing even the

circumcision party without an offer to

them of repentance that their faith

would be sound is that you're also being

a hypocrite. And that's the side that we

can fall either we could fall off on one

side and not take false teaching very

urgently. That would be naive, Paul

says. But there's another side where you

can get uh where the only message you

have is condemnation.

So, for example, think about maybe one

of your kids. I don't know if you knew

this, but John Piper, famous preacher,

one of his sons is in this category, and

he had to do the extremely difficult

thing of putting Abraham Piper out of

his church. I think it's in Minnesota,

Minneapolis. It's it's a Bethlehem

Baptist church. And uh because he was

just that, a blatant false teacher. And

now he has a Tik Tok where all he does

is try to undermine the word where he

just says look at all these

contradictions kind of thing. Extremely

painful. Well, do you think John Piper

hopes that Abraham Piper would repent

and be saved? He's his father. Of course

he would. Right? But if your son was

taken in by his false teaching, you

might be so angry at him that all you

want is condemnation for him. Okay? Just

like it would be very difficult in your

heart to forgive a person who through

either reckless negligence or intent

caused a building to collapse on one of

your kids. So it's not in a neutral

environment that we preach a gospel of

grace even to false teachers. So there's

a rebuke there. It's we have to

contradict what they're saying and teach

the right thing. But Paul says, "So that

they might be sound in faith." In

another place, that they might um escape

the snare of the devil. That they were

captured for a time by him. So there is

hope for false teachers. Sometimes it

feels very slim, but I I think I've set

it up enough for you to understand what

I'm talking about with my main point.

Let's put up the main point here. So

this is the main point of what Paul is

trying to teach in Titus 1 10-16. And it

is that the purpose of rebuking false

teachers is to protect the church and

call for repentance and sound faith.

That includes not just them, but also

those that were deceived by that false

teaching. You remove the last part, it's

like what Paul calls a noisy gong, not

love, also not the gospel. But you can't

remove the first part either because we

actually have to say what's true. Um

otherwise there's no correction of it

and no protection. So the purpose of

rebuking false teachers is to protect

the church and call for repentance and

sound faith. And as with all true main

points from scripture, they are

impossible to actually apply apart from

the power of the spirit. Soon as you try

to do it in your flesh, you'll either be

the noisy gong or the one that's just

always really loving without any truth.

You fall off on either side. Uh Jesus

will fold grace and truth and we have

his spirit living in us. So, at no point

ever ought to we to think that we can

accomplish uh obeying a point like this

in any deep way without the spirit. Let

me state it one more time. The purpose

of rebuking false teachers is to protect

the church and call for repentance and

sound faith. Let's get into verse one

here. He said or verse 10. Uh Paul says,

"For there are many who are

insubordinate, empty talkers and

deceivers, especially those of the

circumcision party." We're jumping up in

middle of the stream. What we had just

gotten done talking about last week is

that part of putting in order what

remains to be put in order is for Titus

to call elders who are qualified. And

the sermon is not about those qualified

elders. It touches on them though

because that's what the the context is.

And verse nine, just a moment he gets he

goes that one he said that one of the

qualifications of elders among other

things like being a lover of good uh not

being uh given to uh drunkenness or

quick-tempered or the husband of one

wife able to manage his household well

um and um uh lead his children to be

obedient. those kinds of things is also

in verse 9 says he must hold firm to the

trustworthy word is taught so that he

may able be able to give instruction and

sound doctrine and also rebuke those who

contradict

it and like I said this is a situation

where there's a building project of the

church being built up and it there are

construction workers that the enemy has

planted who are actually intentionally

trying to destabilize the church for

some kind of gain of their own. Okay. So

maybe some are doing it through reckless

negligence or just negligence. That can

happen if you don't study God's word. Um

I remember in seminary a professor said

that uh we have to still keep the

Sabbath. And he made all these points

about keeping the Sabbath. And it almost

convinced me until I went to Colossians

where it talks about um that that that's

a legalistic claim and that the sha the

the the gospel is the shadow and the

object that casts that shadow is Jesus

and what the go well excuse me the

Sabbath is a shadow and Jesus is the

shadowcaster. In other words, he's the

object. He's the substance. He's the

reality about what the Sabbath is about.

So it is not about legalistically

keeping one day. The Bible says that if

you keep one day and that's your

conviction as unto the Lord, that's

good. Or if you see all days as equally

holy and you keep them unto the Lord,

that's good as well. You can have

personal convictions about it. However,

um the importance is that we're resting

from our works in God's grace. That's

what the Sabbath is about. You can read

Hebrews 4 on that, right? But some of

the scriptures about this being like an

eternal covenant that you have to keep

it and that Christians just completely

put aside the Sabbath. this is what this

teacher was teaching were I was like

wait a minute is he right like I was

much younger in my faith and still being

trained up and I hadn't been exposed to

counter teaching to that there's

actually a way to keep the Sabbath

legalistically that ruins the whole

purpose you go to Israel one of the

rules that they have is that on the

Sabbath which would be Saturday um you

can't press any elevator buttons because

that's a work and so all of them are

already pressed which means that every

elevator stops at every single level. Is

that what the Sabbath is about? That was

never what the Sabbath is about. And

that's not resting in God's grace.

That's just a superficial works thing,

right? That gets you nothing. So, we

pray for Israel and pray for people that

have um that are deceived by that kind

of level. What I call that is like a

shallow application of God's word.

That's always the problem with legalism.

It's so shallow. There's not inner

transformation. Right? So, again, back

to verse 10. For there are many who are

insubordinate. So people that are not

submissive to God's word, they refuse to

obey uh they refuse to obey church

leaders. They refuse to obey um God.

They never submit to one another in

reverence for Christ. That's what

insubordination means. Empty talkers.

You know exactly what empty talkers are.

People they have lots of words, but the

the content is just a bunch of fluff and

air. Uh you have deceivers. Okay. Now, I

think we all know naturally that if

somebody is trying to deceive you,

there's intent behind that, right? You

ever been deceived by someone, finding

out later what they did was pre-planned.

They were trying to tell you something

that's false because there's some kind

of gain. We call that manipulation is a

type of uh of deceiving, right? So,

there's and you're already seeing

there's different kinds of people to

watch out for. People that are just

rebellious. they don't ever subordinate

themselves. Um, and we ought to watch

out how we talk about our government

even when we disagree because God says

that we need to be subordinate to the

leaders he's put in place. And it's not

just the good ones that he puts in

place. He's sovereign over all of it. So

sometime that's that's very difficult.

And you have to discern if what is being

asked of you or commanded of you by law

is actually something that causes you to

break your relationship with the Lord by

disobeying him. Right? His law is

supreme. So we talked about that quite a

bit in the co era. I'm not going to

rehash all those ideas, but then he

says, "Especially those of the

circumcision party." Okay. So, I want to

just spend a little bit of time on the

circumcision party. Um, and I also want

to give you a little bit of structure of

the sermon. I thought one of the most

valuable things that I could do

considering that Paul is listing these

different kinds of categories of people

to watch out for that will end up

contradicting the gospel or something um

else in scripture that maybe finds its

way kind of permeating it, poisoning the

gospel from the outside. Um, and and

what I'm going to do is I'm going to

give you seven different I would call

them archetypes of false teaching. They

just keep happening over and over again.

I don't know that they're exhaustive.

Uh, it was hard for me to think of one

that doesn't really fit into one of

these categories, but it's not like

scripture says, "Hey, there are seven

archetypes of false teaching." Um, I'm

showing you verses that mention this

kind of false teaching. Um, but also

it's partially experiential and you'll

know immediately. It's like, "Oh, yeah,

I know. I know someone in that category

or I've heard of people that fit in that

category. Okay, so if you're thinking um

a when is the sermon going to end right

after 7. So it'll give you an idea uh

where we're going through and 7 is going

to be by far we're spending the most

time on it because they're not

necessarily ranked in the order they

show up here in the verses. The way that

I've ranked 1 through 7 is by their

difficulty to discern. One's going to be

very easy. seven is going to be

extremely hard. I have seen the

archetype of a type seven, it's just my

type, type seven, uh, false teacher, um,

deceive what I believed at the time were

relatively mature

Christians. So, we have to be careful.

And what I'm going to be trying to do is

showing you the kinds of evidences

you're looking for that someone is doing

something like that with intent. Okay?

Again, I think e one would be very easy.

Also uh fe please don't feel patronized

by the simple language. What happened

was Isaiah asked me he had read a uh

verse that talked about that heresies

will be uh introduced secretly and if

they're introduced secretly how can we

know the false teacher? How do we know?

And so I I said you know and and I it

was just rattling off and at the time I

had a list of five. These are the kinds

of evidences of false teachers that I

know are were warned about in scripture

and that I've also experienced. And so

then I decided we're at the dinner

table. I'll put them in really simple uh

terms that kids can memorize. Okay. So

they're still in those terms because I

think adults could memorize them too in

that way or that they would be more

memorable. Um but you'll you're going to

laugh when you see how um how simplistic

they are. Um but that's just for memory

sake. So let's continue here because

what it says about the the

insubordinate, the empty talkers, the

deceivers, and the circumcision party.

And even in Paul's writing, that's not

exhaustive. He mentions other examples

as well. He says they must be silenced

since they are upsetting whole families

by teaching for shameful gain what they

ought not to teach. If you've ever

experienced someone teaching something

false that is so contrary to something

really clearly black and white in

scripture, it's one way. Scriptures make

it very clear and it's not the other

way. But that person says actually it's

this way too or it's not that way, it's

this way. Um, people will leave churches

over that. Churches will split right

down the middle. Children are always

harmed in a church split because the the

youth group or the kids ministry ends up

falling apart as well. And then their

experience was that the love that they

experienced in the church is not

reliable. This happened to me at a at a

church. I I'm intentionally not

mentioning it. I'm not uh in the

business of just trying to slam churches

all the time. If there's a church that's

teaching something absolutely false, I

don't think it's wrong to call it out by

name. But in this case, I'm not going to

do that. But um the church fell apart in

a church split and people got

unbelievably nasty about things. So

nasty. No fruit of the spirit on either

side of the split. It seemed there were

some people, but it was just it was

devastating. And I I watched friends

that went to Lake Owiggo High School

that uh just walked away from the

church, stopped coming to a youth group

from either church. They kind of form

two different churches. So, and and

imagine the parents of those kids. What

are they going to tell them? They're

like, "You're all just hypocrites." You

know, you say you love me and then you

just don't even act like Christians

towards each other, right? I mean,

that's what I said in my heart, too. And

then I found out later, surprise, I'm a

hypocrite as well. And I'm not really

any better than them. The call is to

obedience and truth and love. And it can

be very difficult to um maintain

operation within the Holy Spirit through

surrender when you're angry at people

and you feel really justified because

they were destabilizing the concrete of

the church and watch out for that. So

since Paul says especially the

circumcision party when we get to that

particular point um which uh let me pull

out my little list here will be uh point

three. We'll spend a little bit more

time there since Paul says especially.

Yeah, that one is um uh the third

archetype. Okay, but let's continue

reading here. I'm going to finish

reading all the way through here cuz

most of the archetypes are drawn

directly from here and you'll see them.

Uh Paul continues and says, "One of the

cretins, a prophet of their own, said

cretins are always liars, evil beasts,

lazy glutton. This testimony is true."

It cracks me up every time that Paul is

using probably Epimenity's words here uh

instead of his own slightly distancing

self but then double stamping what he

says. Therefore, rebuke them sharply

that they may be sound in faith. Now, it

may seem that this is just about the

cretins, but remember the context here

is rebuking false teaching. And so, I

believe that it it it includes the

cretins that were deceived by those um

uh false teachings, but also even the

false teachers themselves. And I will I

will show you um a verse at the end of

the sermon that really proves that from

second Timothy that even false teachers

can repent. Um so it is not clear

whether they're uh at any given time

actually um committing the blasphemy of

the spirit. The blasphemy of the spirit

is when you fully and finally call what

the spirit calls good evil. There's no

other conviction for you then if you're

going to call that. That's what they

said. They said that Jesus wasn't doing

his miracles by the spirit but by a

demon. And that was evidence that that

some of them were committing the

blasphem of the spirit. So only

unforgivable sin and we do not know uh

when someone is necessarily committing

it and we ought not to think that we do.

Um it can be happening. Um and and false

teachers would likely be in the category

of some of the people that are doing it.

But we're still calling them to a sound

faith. Verse 14, not devoting themselves

to Jewish myth myths and the commands of

people who turn away from the truth. To

the pure, all things are pure, but to

the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is

pure. But both their minds and their

consciences are defiled. They profess to

know God, but they deny him by their

works. They are detestable, disobedient,

unfit for any good work. So you, by the

way, this is a little side point

regarding um uh a an evidence about

false teachers that fits in every seven

categories. there's no to say to begin

with. Um the Bible talks about

how it's not right to use kindness as

the only rubric by which you um evaluate

someone's character. Do you know why?

Because the enemy multiplies his kisses

and the enemy is a flatterer. So if the

only thing you're looking for to see

whether a person is trustworthy,

reliable, good in the sense that they're

righteous by faith, is that they're kind

to you, you're going to you're going to

be particularly susceptible to that kind

of deception from the enemy. And I think

that's an area that the church is really

weak. First of all, it feels really good

when people are kind to you. Um but but

kindness is not enough. But guess what

never feels kind?

Rebuke, right? I mean, you're supposed

to do it in gentleness. We'll go to the

passage that talks about that. You're

supposed to be perfectly courteous. Ad

homminum attacks and and saying, "Oh,

uh, you know, um, saying mean things

about people that he cares about." Those

kinds of crooked attacks are not what we

use to rebuke false teachers in that

way. Um, but but rebuke is like probably

the heaviest form of correction there is

other than church discipline, you know?

So you might say like there's sometimes

there's a a correct development

encouragement. The next level up

intensity is uh exhortation. The next

would be like admonition. The one after

that might be actually literally called

correction. Then reproof, then rebuke,

then church discipline. The the most

serious tool church can enact in the

case of a of a false teacher or someone

that's being divisive. Um, and so I I

think to myself, I want to ma match uh

if if I feel that there's a brother in

Christ that needs some kind of

correction, uh, match the tone of my

voice to the level of intensity that the

Holy Spirit is guiding me to. Um, so so

you don't go come in hot with a rebuke

uh with someone that's just has maybe uh

a misunderstanding on a worldview issue.

You talk about it gently and lovingly.

But a there is some force in a rebuke.

You need to be convicted that what is

being said is so false that it has to be

strongly opposed. Okay? So if if you

think that the only mark of good

Christianity is kindness, well, you're

going to b at any kind of correction

because, well, that's not kind. And you

hear that all the time. Oh, you're

judging me cuz you're correcting me.

It's an old trick to just try to

insulate yourself from hearing anything

that's painful. faithful are the wounds

of a

friend. And those often times the

they're not wounds like them literally

taking a knife and stabbing you in the

back. They're the kind of wounds where

it's painful to hear that there's some

kind of sin in your life that they're

seeing that you don't see. Right? That's

that's a faithful wound when someone

tells you. You should hold on to those

kinds of friends. Um often times in my

experience, I say in American

Christianity, I'm only comparing to

German Christianity. Germans will tell

you what they think and they won't

always be gentle about it. Uh, but often

times the only time I hear an American

tell you what they actually think is

when they're really angry at you. That's

when you really know. It ought not to

be. So, we ought to be able to speak the

truth in love to somebody gently in in

the coolness of the day when we're calm,

when we thought about it carefully, when

we've given them time to prepare. I want

to talk about something that might be

difficult. Right? So again, do not use

kindness as your only rubric. You will

get taken in. So let's go to the very

first type. I think this would probably

be in the category of either

insubordinate or empty talkers. And

let's put the first one up. Bible bad

and undermine. Okay. Uh all the other

ones are Bible good. And Bible bad just

means that the person that's uh saying

the false thing uh the the false teacher

of this kind of type openly states that

they believe the Bible is a bad thing, a

dangerous thing to believe. This is one

of the reasons why this is the easiest

one to discern. Okay? And then what

they'll do is they'll go on to undermine

it and show you all kinds of different

contradictions. Um often times I I think

an atheist is in this category. I'm

assuming everyone knows what an atheist

is. It's not somebody that attends a uh

actually I hope there are atheists at at

a because that means they'll hear the

gospel preached. I don't know what we'd

call those like biblical term we'd be

like atheite or I don't know what they

want to be called. I'm just messing

around. But um an atheist is someone

that doesn't believe that God exists,

you know. And there's I think a range of

different type of you can have an

atheist that seems really angry and is

like making their life a mission to

prove that God doesn't exist or an

atheist that really is something we call

an agnostic like I don't know. I don't

think so but I don't know. And that

makes a difference. Usually an agnostic

is not going around trying to undermine

uh the validity of the Bible even if

they don't think it's valid. They don't

have a big um dog in the fight to try to

do that. But somebody that has um that

dog in the fight will will consistently

point out contradictions in the Bible.

Okay, let me give you one. This is from

the American I don't know if it's the

American Atheist Society. Um but uh

basic yeah American atheists website and

and their point is and I bring this one

up particularly because it comes up in

this verse uh this was from Genesis

Genesis 17:10

17:10 so it's somewhat fresh in our

minds from two two years ago uh but uh

this is my covenant which and they're

quoting the KJV this is my covenant

which ye shall keep between me and you

and thy seed after thee. Every manch

child among you shall be circumcised.

Okay. So, they're saying that's a

command in the Bible. And then what the

New Testament says, if you be

circumcised, Christ shall profit you

nothing. So, one's a command to be

circumcised. And one saying that it's

worthless, right? So, what's that about?

That would be Galatians 5:2. Well, you

Galatians 5:2

all know if you've been around a

teaching uh of the Bible between the two

covenants, there are two covenants.

the one covenant. It was indeed

commanded that they would be circumcised

and that would include them as a citizen

in the nation of Israel. It would be an

inclusion that they're making a covenant

with God uh to to keep the law. And by

that time that law was not just some

kind of religious idea, but it was their

civil law too. It's how their whole

nation functioned, right? So there's all

these different it chaperoned evil. And

but but in the New Testament, Paul

actually reveals to us that even in the

Old Testament, this is what Galatians is

about. it. Righteousness was never by

keeping the law. Remember, was Abraham

declared righteous by faith before or

after he was

circumcised before. That's a point Paul

makes in Galatians. So, he was never

declared righteous because of any other

works, including the work of getting

circumcised, which in itself is a work,

but it's also a work that um basically

symbolizes the covenant that you are

going to put yourself under the law and

keep it all. That was the big problem

with the Judaizers in cree. The cretins

that um supposedly had become Christians

but were still of the circumcision

party. That would be Pharisees or any

kind of other Sadducees or lawyers of

the law that uh indeed studied the law

really well. But uh what they taught was

a form of of works righteousness. Okay.

So, and that gets into a whole different

category. But we know there's no

contradiction here. Uh uh the New

Testament isn't saying that circumcision

was was always worthless. It's saying

that now if you were to be circumcised,

not in a medical sense, but in the sense

that you're committing to keep all of

the law, that just breaks the foundation

of the gospel. Right? We need to repent

of all of our works and realize that the

only saving power, as you've heard

before, is by grace alone, through faith

alone, in Christ alone. We can thank the

original Luther for for teaching that

from Romans and clearing that up for the

church when it was very much muddied. Um

so again that that's not even a

contradiction but you can see how to

someone that doesn't have the spirit of

God living in them it would be. So the

conclusion of this atheist site is that

what is incredible about the Bible is

not its divine authorship. It's that

such a concoction of contradictory

nonsense could be believed by anyone to

have been written by an omnisient God.

to do so, one would first have to not

read the book, which is the practice of

most Christians, or if one does read it,

dump it in the trash, uh, dump in the

trash one's rational intelligence, to

become a fool for God. In other words,

okay, so I want you to hear, especially

with that last verse, to become a fool

for God, in other words. Satan is behind

all false teaching ultimately or one of

his minions. and he is is brilliant and

brilliant enough to help false teachers

do all the way down to to the seventh

archetype that we get to. And you're

going to see how tricky it gets. But he

will also just blatantly contradict the

truth. One way to know what Satan's

purpose is is that whatever God says we

should do will glorify God. Satan wants

himself to be glorified. That means that

he needs to tell us to do the opposite

of what God says. So, let me go to um

Psalm 14:1 and show you what God says

Psalms 14:1

about the claim that he doesn't exist.

The fool says in his heart, "There is no

God. They are corrupt. They do

abominable deeds. There is none who does

good." So, God looks down into the heart

of someone who's made a hardened claim

that he doesn't exist. God knows you

have to suppress the truth of what can

be naturally known from creation. Romans

1. To do that, it makes you foolish. So,

what does Satan write back? No, you're

the fool, God. Do you see it? He's

behind that idea to to claim it's a it's

a blatant contradiction of what God

says. It's foolish to say there's no

God. And then Satan says, "No, it's

foolish to trust God." Okay, so that

one's really simple. Um, one other verse

that may pertain to this kind of thing,

Colossians 2 uh 8, because behind most

atheism is secular humanism. So the idea

is not that you need to repent that you

need to believe in the cross that that

the justice of God that he can forgive

you now because your sin has actually

been punished. That's the gospel. Um but

so for example here it says so see to it

that no one takes you captive by

philosophy. Secular humanism is a is a

form of philosophy or empty deceit

according to human tradition according

to the elemental spirits of um or

another word for spirits there's like

elemental rules principles of the world

and not according to Christ and so I

think basically being deceived by a

philosophy that's anti-gosspel would be

in this category but let's not spend any

more time in that one because I don't

think the church is particularly

susceptible to someone just being like

Bible bad and it contradicts itself.

Let's go to the next one. Um, and it is

Bible good but blatant heresy. Okay,

when I say blatant heresy, um, uh, let's

actually just read what Paul says about

that, how serious it is. Galatians

Galatians 1:8–9

1:8-9. But even if we or an angel from

heaven should preach to you a gospel

contrary to the one we preach to you,

let him be accursed. I think I have one

more verse. Yeah. as we have said

before. So now I say again, if anyone is

preaching to you a gospel contrary to

the one you received, let him be

accursed. Um Paul even goes on to say

even if it's an angel you know um so you

know pseudo-Christian hybrid religions

that talk about an angel having appeared

to them Mormonism or the Church of uh

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has

that claim and and then they include

blatant heresy that Jesus was actually a

created being or Jehovah's Witnesses say

that he's actually identical to Michael.

Jesus and Michael are the same person

and so he's a created being. He's not

God. Um, and he's not eternally

begotten. As no, no matter how

infinitely far back you go into time,

you never find a starting point to

Jesus. He's not eternal like God is

eternal. That would be uh one of those

kinds of blatant heresies. And there's

so many different ones like, oh, the

Holy Spirit's not God, God the Father's

not God, or like one another one would

be Jesus isn't actually human. It's just

more like a ghost kind of thing. You

know, I remember hearing a debate

between um what I believe to be a

genuine Christian and then a guy that

called himself Christian but is more in

the category of like liberal

scholarship. And he said Jesus wasn't

physically resurrected from the dead. He

was only spiritually resurrected from

the dead. And this guy says Paul says

that makes our faith feudal if it didn't

really happen. Right? And uh one of the

points he used was from Luke where Jesus

actually ate fish after his

resurrection. Right? A ghost doesn't eat

fish. Uh, so there's a real body there.

And remember, he let Thomas touch his

nail scars, right? That there was a

physical presence. So with physical

resurrection. So um the declaring the

resurrection as a non-historical event

would be another one. And there's so

many. But again, I don't think that is

particularly what the church is uh most

sub susceptible right now. Um, but I

want you to notice that people there

there are whole groups of Christianity

or like what I call pseudo-Christian

hybrids like uh mixtures of truth about

Christianity, but ultimately the true

gospel is not there. They don't say the

Bible's bad. They say it's good, but

then they say like there um there are

groups that that like Jehovah's

Witnesses claim they love the Bible, but

they have their own version about it

where every place that there's some kind

of to claim to divinity of Christ,

Christ is

sanitized, you know, uh they sanitize

all those ones, not all of them. So

there's ones they haven't figured out

yet, you can use um to call them to

repentance. Uh, but I'm not going to

spend much more time on Bible good but

blatant heresy because again I think you

guys are relatively well protected from

that and it gets taught on a lot anyway.

Three, Bible good but hypocritical

legalism. Okay, so this one is most

certainly found directly in the passage

that we're in. So we're going to go back

to Titus here and uh notice how I'm

saying Titus, not Timothy. I think I

worked out the bug. But um uh the

circumcision party, another way to say

that in more modern language would be

hypocritical legalism. And I want to

show you um verses about how the

Pharisees who were part of the

circumcision party. Um well, they became

part of the circumcision party. They

were just that they're basically the

main villains of the whole gospel. Turns

out some of them came to faith and we

know that from Acts. Uh maybe Nicodemus

was one of them, but several uh came to

faith. Some of them seemed to have come

of faith but kept continuing to preach

that you have to keep the law to be

righteous. And um this is how they

treated Jesus. Luke uh 11 verse

38-42. The Pharisee was astonished to

see that he did not first wash before

dinner. Now some of you may be thinking,

"Wow, gross. He didn't wash his hands."

That's not really what this is about. Uh

the um the Pharisees had developed um

rituals really human traditions uh not

things that were um direct commands that

you always have to do or there's some

kind of penalty or like you're a

transgressor but uh a ritualistic

washing of the hands and washing of the

cups is what he didn't perform. He

didn't do their tradition. And so

they're like who is this man? And also

remember these are the same people that

will conspire against him to murder him.

Right? So listen to what he says next

with those things in mind. Verse 39 I

think. And the Lord, that's Jesus, said

to him, "Now you Pharisees, you cleanse

the outside of the cup and of the dish,

but inside you are full of greed and

wickedness." Next verse. You fools, did

not he who made the outside make the

inside also? But give as alms those

things that are within and behold

everything is clean for you. Remember

verse 15 to the pure all of Titus

Titus 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. To the pure all things are

pure but the defiled and unbelieving

nothing is pure but both their minds and

their consciousnesses are defiled. Most

likely Paul had in mind food laws but

applies to more than just that. Um

consider for example in those um ancient

days uh a a chunk of like a roast or

some kind of chunk of meat uh that came

from a cow uh that was used in some kind

of ritual sacrificed to a demon you know

and you can see how some people in the

church like well we shouldn't eat that

and Paul's point is no the the evil is

not in the meat you can take that and

even if you know that's what it was used

for and sold in the market because they

would sell it afterwards uh you could

eat that with thankfulness to the Lord

Lord, but if your conscience tells you

you can't eat that, then don't. Right?

And he even says that the rule of love

in this case is that we ought not to

insist on our rights and like eat that

meat in front of people which might

cause them to stumble on their own

conviction. But that's that that

conviction also ought not to be allowed

to call what we're doing as evil.

Because again, sin comes from the

deepest parts of our heart. And if God

sees that we're eating that meat or any

food with thankfulness towards him,

that's the inner cleansing. But you

think you can just avoid certain foods

while having these deep sin issues in

your heart and by just obeying these

rules on the top, you're declared

righteous? No, definitely not. Also, it

binds people up with a burden where they

have to do all these rules and follow

all these rules and and their hearts

aren't even necessarily close to God and

they don't become any closer to God.

There was one rule that the Pharisees

came up with that we have in writing

where on the Sabbath day, you cannot

travel from your neighbor's house to

have dinner with them while carrying a

fig, but you could cut it in half and

carry it

twice. Right? You laugh, but now think

about the idea that they're stating

you're only right with God if you follow

that kind of

nonsense. Right? So it just upsets

entire families. It ruins the freedom

you have in Christ. you're going over to

have a uh dinner party with friends you

love and all you're thinking about is

obeying the little rules. It doesn't

mean that God's law is somehow just to

be set in the trash if it doesn't

matter. Its purpose is to point us to

the utter sinfulness of sin, right? Not

to point us to that it's sinful, to

carry a full fig, but not to carry two.

That's washing the outside superficial

application of the law. And what Paul is

saying by verse 16, though they profess

to know God, they deny him by their

works. They are detestable, disobedient,

and unfit for good any good work. A

legalist may seem very kind, very nice,

all put together. Outside of the cup is

clean, seems clean, it's got nice

dishes, got a good life. Deep down

though, if anybody thinks they're right

with God by being good enough, the pride

and the arrogance of that is what makes

the Pharisees the main villains of the

gospel. So, we need to take legalism

extremely seriously. It shows up in

different forms in in the Bible. I think

overuse of alcohol is dangerous. It's

like playing with a fire. I had a friend

who lost his father to alcoholism and he

decided never to drink. But he's not

legalistic about it. He's not saying no

Christian can drink. This would be an

example of where Christians can get

legalistic. And so, hey, how do we deal

with the danger of alcohol? We told that

no Christian can do it. If they do it,

it's a sin. That's not the Bible. The

Bible says don't get drunk. I think also

the Bible says like people in high

positions, I know it does, ought not to

be drinking hard liquor. It's it's it's

just it's too easy to get drunk on

something that potent, right? Um so we

don't really want like kings ought not

to do that according to the Bible. Um

and and so you got the more authority

you have, the more you have to be safe

with things that can really burn you. Um

but to just go out and say that like

anybody that's drinking um is is

sinning. Well, that's not true. Some

Christians actually have the freedom and

they have not had alcoholism in their

lives and and and they in do it in

moderation. You know, it's just one

example of the kind of legalism that

post prohibition found its way into

Baptist churches. And by the way, almost

every church other than Lutherans,

Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and

Anglicans, and then Catholicism, which

isn't part of Protestantism. Almost

every like community Bible church has

Baptist roots. Our church used to be

called Boonferryy Baptist Church. Now

it's Boonferry Community Church. So, we

have Baptist roots as well. So, it's not

like Baptists or those who kind of have

the spiritual legacy of of Baptist

theology can't get legalistic. They can.

And it's that dangerous, right? Any

ounce of works introduced to the gospel

means you'll never know if you've done

enough. You will never know if you've

done enough. You will never have that

alleviation of guilt because you have to

do something. And I've proven to myself

I'll fail in trying to do enough to be

right with God every single time. That's

especially true when you're looking

deeper. Right? Okay. So, next one. This

is So, that one was Bible good but

hypocritical legalism. I showed you an

example of that uh in opposition to

Jesus. Four

um Bible good but adding or removing.

This is a little bit more difficult

because in order to know that somebody

has definitely added something that's

not there or removed something that is

there, you basically need to know the

whole Bible and know what's there or you

might not know what they're removing.

If they remove a really famous verse

like be kind to one another,

tender-hearted, forgiving one another as

God in Christ forgave you. Really

powerful verse to memorize by the way.

Uh that's Ephesians 4:32. And they say

Ephesians 4:32

we don't need to be kind to another. We

don't need to be forgiving one another.

Like there's so many verses about that,

you'll know. But what about some of the

more unread and unstudied uh um books of

the Old Testament? How well do you guys

feel like you have a handle on Ezekiel?

I'd love to go through that book. uh

sometime soon. Who knows what God will

do. Maybe that'll be next. So, we

haven't prayed about that at all. But

Ezekiel is a wild book and has a lot to

say. And if someone said, "Well, in this

portion of Ezekiel talks about this and

it's somewhat close to it, but they add

one thing to it and you haven't really

studied Ezekiel that well and you didn't

have your Bible open. You might think

just based on trusting this person

because you seemed like a good teacher

teacher that that's that that's good.

But what if they have really malicious

intent in adding something? One way that

some things will sometimes be added by

false teachers is by taking from the

context and and then uh taking that

context and adding it as if it was

authoritative to the Bible and then it

twists what it's actually saying. Okay.

Um so I don't know if you've seen people

do that, but basically Paul says one

thing and he says this is true for all

the churches. And then the uh and and

this is not necessarily always just a

false teacher tactic. I think maybe you

misunderstand the content and the

context and you were misapplying it or

something like that. So it's not an

absolute sign. But a false teacher will

take the context and see yeah back then

it was this way but now it means the

exact opposite of what Paul said because

we have a different context you know. So

unless the Bible says that that that the

context has changed like between the

covenants, that's not true. Especially

when Paul is founding something in

creation order, for example, that goes

all the way back to Genesis. It's not

something that you can just say, well,

now we don't have to do that cuz our

context has changed. And that's one

tricky way that you can add to the

Bible. Another thing is you can you can

remove from the Bible. I've noticed that

when I see people doing this that I

perceive have malicious intent in their

teaching. And I say perceive because

it's not always clear. It's not always

clear. Um I'm I feel like I'm becoming

more and more clear, but we see things

through a glass dimly and eventually God

seems to expose it. But before it's

really exposed, um it's not always easy

to see. And and this one is one of those

categories. So, like I've noticed

they'll often times remove something

from the Old Testament, you know,

because it seems that the modern-day

American church knows less about the Old

Testament. It gets preached less. Why is

it that the Old Testament gets preached

so much less? I think it's cuz it's a

lot of really uncomfortable uh

controversial things in it. You know, uh

things related to the judgment and

condemnation and wrath of God. You will

hear all the time, God is love, and he

is. But if what's meant is that he's

never angry and nothing makes him angry.

Sometimes you're not even preaching the

same God because there are definitely

God is slow to anger. Abounding and

steadfast love but there are things that

make him angry and we have a a

significant amount of stories and

teaching in the Old Testament about the

kinds of things that do and they find

their way into the Bible too. Remember

Jesus was angry and he cleared the whole

temple with a whip because they had made

it a place where they were robbing God.

They were selling things rather than a

house of than making the house of

prayer. It angered Jesus who is God in

person, God in the flesh. So we even

talk about the wrath of God um is

revealed uh against all those who

suppress the truth in in in Romans 1. So

you leave out the wrath of God. It why

would someone do that? Now we're looking

at intent. Well, because that's a

popular message. You can draw a lot of

people to that. And if you're a pastor,

and just about every pastor I know makes

their income through the gifts and

offerings of a church, and you can say a

bunch of things that are really

attractive, and people want to hear,

there's almost nobody that wants to hear

that God has justified outrage over

unrepentant sin. That's his wrath.

That's not a popular message with the

world. In fact, Jesus says the world

hates those kinds of things. and you'll

get hate if you align yourself with

those kinds of things. So if you're

constantly leaving out God's wrath from

the Old Testament and the church is in

this age se relatively weak if I'm right

about that regarding the Old Testament.

That's one of those places where you can

just remove something by just never

saying it, you know. And also it's very

hard to charge someone with that with

any intent there because just because

they haven't said it recently doesn't

mean they can't come back and say,

"Well, I never said the wrath of God

doesn't exist." You know, so again, hard

to see, but let me read to you how stern

the Bible is. How stern God is about

adding and removing. Proverbs 30 uh

5-6. Every word of God proves true. He

is a shield to those who take refuge in

him. Do not add to his words, lest he

rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Also Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 4:2

4:2, you shall not add to the word that

I commanded you, nor take from it, that

you may keep the commandment of the Lord

your God that I commanded you. So there

are very clear commands uh to one reason

uh that the elders and I and I think

just about everyone at BootsFair that's

in leadership and probably most of

everyone that attends um preach through

books of the Bible and and continue to

preach through new books of the Bible

that we haven't gone through is that we

want to preach the whole council of

God's word. Paul talks about that in

Acts that that's one of the ways that

they could know he was a faithful

apostle because he declared to them the

whole council of God's word and left

nothing out. Uh so and I I I'm not

trying to say that topical sermons are

already bad always bad or a topical

series is always bad but it can lead to

the liability of avoiding things that

are controversial and I I don't think we

ought to. There are controversial things

like today in Titus and we just keep

going right through them. And when you

go through with a white heart, with a

right heart, I think it's actually

deeply attractive to those that God is

drawing to the church, drawing to the

faith, and drawing to deeper change in

their life, sanctification. So, that's

enough with

that. We're going to go to Bible good,

but twisted immorality. This one, I

think, is um difficult to know because

you don't see the twisted immorality

very quickly. Let's go to second Peter

2 Peter 2:2

2:2. Um and it says as and many will

follow their sensuality and because of

them the way of truth will be

blasphemed. That word sensuality um the

way the ESV translates it might not

immediately help you see how uh like how

deep that is issue is. Uh it's it's like

want and lustfulness. There's sexual sin

in that sensuality. Okay. So I'll give

you an example. And by the way, the

Bible calls out false teachers by name.

And when I'm absolutely certain that one

of them is, I will do it too. And you've

heard this name before and this was

already dealt with in the church a long

time ago. But um initially Rob Bell

seemed to be an upand cominging

brilliantly gifted teacher and coming at

passages in a way that helped people

really understand what they meant and

very very popular. And then uh he left

his church and he started questioning

whether everyone is saved and became

somewhat of a universalist. And even

that didn't seem to uh make everyone

realize that uh that he was a false

teacher. At that time I did because

telling everyone they'll be saved

whether they believe in Jesus or not is

is absolutely false biblically. And it

it it basically drops the warning of

condemnation. and and anybody that drops

a true warning from God about the

reality of condemnation has bad intent.

But then only about a couple years

later, he came out and he said that the

church is just hopelessly stuck in the

past morally. And he said, "We need to

catch up morally." And what he

ultimately said is that one of the ways

that we need to catch up is we need to

recognize that homosexuality is not a

sin. We need to finally catch up with

the time. Okay. So in this case, the the

Peter passage talks about secretly

introducing destructive heresies, but

you will know them by their sensuality.

You might not know, they're kind of

under the cover for a while about the

wrong thing they're taught, but

eventually they'll say something

absolutely false about um sexual purity

kinds of things. And it's so clear in

scripture that God intends uh uh it only

to between a lifelong relationship to

one man and one woman. and that that

brings life and that that's how we're to

multiply on the earth and that

ultimately what he's seeking is godly

offspring. So remember um when you see

somebody blatantly contradict things as

deep as sexual morality, imagine what it

would take for you to break that

boundary. I think that boundary is a

false teacher boundary according to

Peter. Next one, Bible good but leave

out truth. And this one is so bound up

with the seventh one as well. Uh this

one is similar to uh removing something

or adding something. Although removing

is more actively you're like you're

saying that shouldn't be in the Bible or

I'm going to add this to the Bible. And

scholars do that. Scholars are like I

don't think this thing that Jesus said

is historical and then they just remove

it. Uh the Jesus seminar did that. Uh

they call it the dethologization of the

gospel. Like we're just going to take

all the myths out of here, you know, and

anything that's supernatural is a myth.

Uh so we're just going to remove all

that. Um, that would be removing but

leaving out truth. We've talked about it

a little bit already. Let's go to 2

2 Corinthians 4:2

Corinthians 4:2. Moreover, it is

required of stewards that they be found

faithful. Is this the one? Second 2

2 Corinthians 4:2

Corinthians

4:2. Yeah, I might I might have given

you guys the wrong one. I'm going to

look it up in my Bible really quick. I

thought I multiply double checked these

ones, but

um 2 Corinthians 4:2 says, "But we have

2 Corinthians 4:2

renounced disgraceful underhanded ways.

We refuse to practice cunning or tamper

with God's word, but by the open

statement of the truth, we would commend

ourselves to everyone's conscience in

the sight of God of of God. Again, I

don't intend to mention churches here,

but I know that many of you either have

friends or this happened to you that

during COVID, the crisis or perceived

intensity of the crisis uh required

pastors to make certain decisions and

then the people in that church had heard

them preach for many years and and

thought they would never make that kind

of decision like closing the church for

an entire year. Uh and and and then you

know what the elders and I realized is

like well it's really good to keep

hospitals open and we don't want

hospitals overrun. So that's important.

But the church is the hospital of the

soul and your eternal life matters more

than just your physical body. Your

physical body matters. It does. Can't

love someone and say be warm and not

give them a blanket. That's not real

love. But the reality is that just

closing the church for that long, a lot

of Christians realize I don't want to be

in the kind of church that just closes

for a year like that. Um, am I

necessarily saying that closing your

church for a year is false teaching? No.

I I don't necessarily know that that's

the case. Um, but I consider it to be in

in some ways leaving out truth because

Zoom preaching is not the same as being

in person. Zoom didn't exist when the

Bible commanded um through the author of

Hebrews that we ought not to forsake the

gathering. And then there were other

things that came in too. Um I think that

essentially critical race theory is is

hypocritical legalism because you can

never do enough and it's all about doing

justice when really the justice is

already done in the cross. And a pastor

should know that really really deeply.

It doesn't mean that we don't work

justly, but to say that um that systems

themselves are racist. Uh who's supposed

to repent? The system individuals are.

And to say that everybody is, it's one

of the first things that God really

hammered in me when I recommitted in my

faith. I just immediately remembered

everybody is created in the image of

God, you you know, and I played with uh

a lot of uh black football players,

Tongans and Samoans, and there was a lot

of racism back and forth uh between all

those groups. And I I just realized like

I need to repent of the contempt that

I've had uh for people groups based on

negative experience with with some of

them. And they had negative experiences

with me too, right? And and God just

immediately gave me a love. Did you know

every single human being is eternal?

whether they're saved or not. You don't

just disappear and stop existing. God

has given us eternal souls. So, we

matter and and it does not matter.

There's now neither Jew nor Greek or

barbarian or skithing or male or female.

We're we have become something so

importantly more important than our

ethnicity in Christ that it unifies us

and not not to be the primary category

that we differentiate ourselves on. So,

people were really upset about that kind

of thing. And I think it it leaves out

the truth that the only way to

accomplish any justice is by first

accepting the cross. All right, last one

and then we're done. This is the hardest

one. I'm even going to be showing you um

uh three videos about it. And this is

Bible good but verbal slide of hand. And

you probably already know this is about

Tim Mackey. He is the um Bible project

teacher. And it is a crying shame that

he does this because I think uh the

project itself of of giving summaries of

Bible books and teachings like that um

is something that uh is is powerful but

not when led by a man like this. And I

want to show you this is blatant lying.

You're going to see I can prove that he

knows that he's lying about hell and

about its reality. So the um let's let's

show you the first video, but I want you

to stop it for a second just at the

screenshot. Can you guys uh so um now

the opening line of the whole Bible is

if you look at the first that's the

video there. Okay. Does it stop? Now the

opening line if you look at the first

sentence of the Bible it says in the

beginning you've probably seen it enough

heaven and earth. Okay. And and you can

watch this just look up to Mackie

teaching on hell and you'll see that

whiteboard and and stuff and it's on

different channels and stuff and this

one has millions of views on this

particular channel. And um what he's

talking about is whether the traditional

view of of heaven and and earth and hell

is actually true biblically. And so what

he's saying here in in a sense is true

in Christ. The kingdom of heaven has

come near and there's a sense of

overlap. There's not a full overlap. The

the kingdom of heaven is not yet fully

um come to full fruition. Not everything

is yet submitted to Christ. And that

will happen in the future after a second

coming. But there is some overlap. So

what he's put in your mind is that we're

talking about heaven where God dwells

with his angels and earth. And someday

there will be a new heavens and a new

earth. Okay? Now I want just I want you

to see the the the problem with that

already. The new heavens and the new

earth is not talking that that phrase is

about a new sky, a new outer space area

and a new earth. Right? But also in the

concept of new heavens and the new

earth, God will come to dwell and his

dwelling place will be with men. So the

heaven above will come down and be on

the new heavens and the new earth. Okay.

So when we say heavens, sky and outer

space is what's meant. I guess sometimes

speaking of the heavens where the Lord

is enthroned in glory, that would be

where he is. But in the context, it's

clear. But what he's implanted in your

mind is that we're talking about heaven

and earth. Now listen to what he says

about Genesis. You would not think that

you could make a false teaching out of

Genesis 1, but he accomplishes it. So

let's go.

What does it not say? Can we turn it up?

You look at the first sentence of the

Bible. It says, "In the beginning, God

made heavens

and what does it not say?" It doesn't

say in the beginning God made heaven and

earth and

hell. God didn't make whatever hell is.

God didn't make

it. It's nowhere to be found on page one

of your Bible. Right? What God made is

heaven and earth. And what does God

think about it?

Very good. Okay. Stop right there. This

is the verbal slight of hand. people,

hundreds of thousands of comments on

this video are like, "I've never seen it

that way. How did I never see that?"

Because nobody in their right mind, and

they'd be laughed out of the room in

biblical scholarship to claim that what

God is talking about in the beginning,

he created the heavens and the earth was

that he was creating heaven above where

God exists and the earth below. In fact,

everything that follows is just about

the sky, the outer space area with the

moon, the stars, and the sun. And the

sun and the moon are talked about as

lights for the night and lights for the

day and then everything on earth and all

the different areas of the earth and

populating that with vegetation and with

animals. So, but but if you're thinking,

oh, the beginning of the Bible says God

created the heaven where God dwells and

the earth, and you think, well, then

that's really kind of weird that he left

out hell. That's still just an argument

from silence, right? Let's go to Matthew

Matthew 25:41

25:41. This is what Jesus

said. I'll I'll I'll go there because it

probably hard for them to switch back

and forth between the videos and this,

but Matthew there. Then he will say to

those on his left, "Depart from me, you

cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared

for the devil and his angels." Prepared

and made uh ready. It's it's it's all

the same thing. Also go to chapter 1

verse one of John. Um and and actually

verse one through three. We've been

doing I told you I'll do a little pop

out section of the uh uh word like fire.

Um we just got done reading most of John

uh already. And it says in the beginning

was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God. He was in the

beginning with God. Next verse all

things were made through him and without

him was not anything made that was made.

I told Isaiah, "What would you say if

someone say God didn't create hell?" And

he just laughed. I was like, "That's

stupid. He created all things and hell

exists, you know." So, of course, God

created it. But a verbal slight of hand.

He's making you think of heaven and of

earth and then leaving out hell is

weirdly conspicuous. But Genesis 1 is

not about the creation of heaven and the

angels. It's about creation of all the

things of created order, physical things

you can see. Right? So, but if you're

thinking I'm giving him an unfavorable

reading um and that this isn't fair and

I'm probably taking him out of context,

just listen to the next video of what he

says. This is even more contradictory in

a blatant way about scripture says about

hell. So, let's do the next video. Check

it out. The opening line of the whole

Bible is there. This this needs to come

last. It's the it's the next video.

Sorry, guys. But the Bible project says

hell and that word and what that refers

to is not some place other than heaven

and earth. It's a place where people are

sustained by God's mercy and care, but

God allows them the dignity of not being

in a relationship with him if they don't

want. Stop right there. He just said

hell is a place where God sustains

people with his mercy and care. Okay.

What the gospel says is that Jesus died.

He became the curse of the law. The

curse of the law is that when you don't

keep the law, you're cursed and you to

be hung on a tree. He was cursed for our

sake. All of our debt in the law written

on the uh uh basically on the cross and

he drags all of its demands and

accusations against us with him into the

grave and they're dead and gone and we

are no longer guilty and it saves us

from eternity in condemnation. Right?

Eternity and condemnation or it saves us

from God's mercy and care in hell. So

what Jesus died is to save you from

God's mercy and care. sustaining mercy

and care. This is such blatant false

teaching and it's such a lie. And let me

show you why you can know it's a lie.

Next

video. Okay, let's check it out. Now,

the opening line of the whole Bible is

in the beginning God created the skies

and the land. Now, your Bible

translation might say the heavens and

the earth. In biblical Hebrew, the word

for heaven refers simply to the sky

above. And the word for earth does not

mean globe, but rather the land.

blow us. He knows the heavens doesn't

mean the heaven above. He knows that.

This is just another teaching of his on

the biblepro.com. So he knows exactly

the verbal slide of handies. And

planting the idea of heaven where God

dwells. What did God create? The heavens

and the earth. And you're thinking, "Oh

yeah, he created heaven there and earth

there." This would be the exact right

time to say that he also created hell.

Which, by the way, even without verbal

sight of hand, you should never believe

anybody that says God did not create

hell. if it exists, he created it. He

even prepared it for the devil and his

angels. So, let me read you instead of

the nonsense false teaching that

obviously he's pedling for gain because

there's so much money involved with the

Bible project. Um, and it honestly

breaks my heart that that something that

could have been as valuable as the Bible

project has somebody like that leading

it and starting it in the first place.

But let me tell you, nobody likes this

message. This is not what you get like

paid for except by faithful Christians

to say. Revelation 14:10-11 and then

Revelation 14:10–11

we're

done. Do you guys have it up?

And another angel, a third, following

them, said saying with a loud voice, "If

anyone worships the beast and its image,

and receives a mark on his forehead or

on his hand, he will also drink the wine

of God's wrath poured full strength into

the cup of his anger, and he will be

tormented with fire and sulfur in the

presence of his holy angels and in the

presence of the Lamb."

That's the truth about the danger of

rejecting God and worshiping Satan.

That's the danger of anything other than

full repentance and acceptance of the

gospel that we're not good. That God

sees that we're not good, but that he's

merciful and that he loves us so much

that he gave his one and only son to die

on the cross for us. And even even for

Timi, there's hope. I'm going to

conclude with reading second Timothy

here.

And this is what it says. And the Lord's

servant must not be quarrelome, but kind

to everyone, able to teach, patiently

enduring evil, correcting his opponents

with gentleness. God may perhaps grant

them repentance leading to the knowledge

of the truth. And there's one more

verse. And they may come to their senses

and escape the snare of the devil after

being captured by him to do his will.

That's what I want for Tim

Mackey. for someone that is lying so

blatantly where there can be nothing but

evil intent when you're telling people

hell is a good place, a place where you

can be apart from God, but he'll be kind

to you

anyway. I It's hard to imagine something

more evil and destructive of the gospel

in that way. Um, but I do not want him

to spend eternity in hell either. I want

him to repent. And man, if he did, we

would get probably one of the more

gifted preachers of our generation. So

you can pray for him with

me. So we need to have the put the main

point up one more

time. Even as we come to communion, if

there is anything that we should do like

memorize those seven points about false

teachers, no, study the word, read it,

believe it in in in a straightforward

way. Don't get all twisted up. The

purpose of rebuking false teachers is to

protect the church and call to for

repentance and sound faith. If there's

ways that you've been deceived, if

there's ways that things that you've

believed that you're realizing they're

not right, you can just bring them to

the table and say, "God, forgive me for

believing a false thing about you, for

doubting you, you can come to the foot

of the cross, and that is the most safe

place you will ever be from any kind of

false teaching." Heavenly Father, thank

you for this message. Thank you that you

have um brought us through these

controversial topics over and over and

over again in a truthful way. I pray

that people would be duly warned and

that they would be concerned about uh

their friends listening to uh teaching

like this. It is it is so twisted and

and hard and difficult to figure it out

and there's a slight of hands and uh

Lord I just pray that that would not

continue to be the ministry of men like

Rob Bell and Tacki and that they would

repent and that they would come to a

place where their faith is sound and I

pray that very same thing as a

protective prayer over the church in

Jesus name. Amen.