There is a contemporary lie that is gaining more traction today: “believe whatever you want, and find God.” We are warned continually about the dangers of false teachings, but too many Christians are not equipped to know how to identify that which is true and that which is false.
As Paul writes to the Philippians to find live with joy, he places the center of the joy squarely in completed work of Jesus Christ. It will do us no good to look elsewhere, or to compromise, or diminish the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of men. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is alone that which enables us to live with joy.
Proverbs 14:12
“There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.”
Obsevations & Conclusions:
1. Rootedness in right doctrine requires repetition
2. Purposefully paying attention will produce protection
3. The Christian is called to careful continual caution
4. The joy of our justification is joined to Jesus
Hebrews 5:12-14
“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
1 Peter 5:8-9a
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”
Matthew 16:6; 12
“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
“Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
2 Peter 2:1-3
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”
John 14:6
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 10:9
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
Acts 4:12
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
1 Timothy 4:1-2
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
1 John 2:22-26
“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.”
Jude 3-4
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
Application:
Watch out!
Can you identify any “false teachings” that come from so-called “Christians” today?