The Exposure of False Teachers

Transcript

GR 1394
02/08/2009
The Exposure of False Teachers
II Timothy 3:6-9
Gil Rugh


We're in II Timothy together on Sunday mornings, so turn in your Bibles to Paul's second letter to Timothy. This is Paul's second letter to Timothy, who is really acting on Paul's behalf in ministry in the church at Ephesus, which Paul had founded some years earlier on one of his missionary journeys. Paul has written the earlier letter several years before. Now as he writes this second letter, this is the last letter we have from the Apostle Paul in our New Testament, Paul is imprisoned in Rome and awaiting his execution. He has some strong things to say to Timothy about the ministry of the church at Ephesus and about the dangers confronting the church at Ephesus. And as we come into chapter 3 he has been talking about the dangers that will confront the church from within the church. He started chapter 3 with a command—realize, know this, keep it before your mind that difficult times will come. There will be seasons, periods of time of extreme difficulty for the church, for the church at Ephesus and for local churches where ever they are. Won't always be the same, but these times will be coming and they will be extremely hard. Other times won't be so difficult.

The difficulties will be caused by false teachers who will infiltrate among believers and spread and promote doctrine contrary to the Word of God. So Paul went on in the following verses and listed 18 or 19, depending on how you count them, of the characteristics of these false teachers. They are characteristics of unregenerate men. But we have to keep in mind, when we got to verse 5 we noted that these men hold to a form of godliness. They have the external appearance of being genuine believers, their general actions, their teaching as you would look at it in a superficial way seems good. They are satanic counterfeits, if you will. They hold to a form of godliness, referring to true Christianity, but they have denied its power. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. It is a life-changing power. It not only delivers us from the penalty of our sin, it delivers us from the power of controlling sin. But these men have denied this power, they really know nothing of genuine salvation and the true cleansing, forgiveness and freedom that the gospel brings to the life of one who places his faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul concluded that section at the end of verse 5 by giving another command—avoid such men as these. We are not to have anything to do with them, we are not to tolerate them, their teaching, or their ungodly practices in the church. We are not to submit ourselves to their teaching, be open to listen to them, to argue with them, to become involved in fruitless debates and discussions which accomplish nothing. These are repeated exhortations Paul has given to Timothy. Back in I Timothy 6:20, oh, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter, the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. You avoid that kind of entanglement, that involvement. Those who get involved in that get led away from the truth as it is in Jesus Christ and the Word of God. In II Timothy 2:16 Paul told Timothy, avoid worldly and empty chatter, it will lead to further ungodliness. Their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus. Don't have anything to do with these kinds of men, their teaching. Avoid it, don't get entangled in their teaching, their discussions and their arguments. Down in verse 23, but refuse foolish and ignorant speculation, knowing that they produce quarrels. You see we sometimes think we can engage these false teachers and maybe win them over. You present the truth to them, that's where chapter 2 ended, verse 25, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. We present the truth to them, we're not open to get involved and entangled in their arguments. If they want to debate and argue and say, I'm open, let's talk about it. They're not open, they are just trying to confuse you and lead you astray. So we're open to present the truth because perhaps they are genuinely confused and when confronted with the truth the Spirit of God will give them clarity. But if you confront them with the truth and they don't respond and submit to it, then you have nothing to do with them.

Turn over to Titus 3:10, a verse we have looked at previously. Reject the factious man after a first and second warning. You come, you present the truth, you warn him and show him the error of his teaching or his practice. Doesn't respond, you do it again. After the second warning you reject him. Knowing that such a man is perverted in his sinning, being self-condemned. Keep these things in mind. Always becomes a debate, well maybe we ought to give them more time, we don't want to rush to judgment, we don't want to look like we're too eager to break off contact. If we don't do it God's way, we'll be in trouble. One of the things these false teachers do is they buy time because the longer time you give them, the more their influence spreads and gets hold. So the scripture is clear, you confront them, you confront them again. After that you reject them.

Come back to Romans 16:17. Now I urge you brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissension and hindrances. What's the standard? Contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. So we cut off our involvement, our fellowship, our relationship. We have no reason to get together. They are not open to the truth. Oh, yes, I'm open, I just want to discuss it. No, I've presented the truth to you and you are closed to it. Such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. That's why Paul started chapter 3 by commanding Timothy to know this, keep it in your mind, keep it before you. You don't want to be one of the unsuspecting that gets deceived.

So come back to II Timothy 3. Paul's command to avoid such men as these, now you understand we're talking about false teachers, men who claim to be teaching religious truth but are not. We're not saying you don't have anything to do with unbelievers in the world. In I Corinthians 5 Paul told the Corinthians they are to disassociate themselves from the immoral man who is part of the church. I don't mean you disassociate yourself from every immoral person in the world because then you'd have to go out of the world. Jesus indeed was a friend of publicans and sinners. We aren't saying we don't want to be around unbelievers, we're talking about those who would attempt to corrupt the Word of God, teach false doctrine, infiltrate the church with corrupt practices as well as corrupt teaching. With them we will have nothing to do.

Now beginning with verse 6 he further elaborates and gives the reason for the command at the end of verse 5, as though the characteristics he had set forth weren't sufficient. Avoid such men as these for among them. The ‘for’ tells you and gives you further reason to avoid these kinds of men. Have nothing to do with them. For among them, out of these kinds of men that I've just described are teachers that do this. Not every one of them uses this approach, every false teacher doesn't use the same approach, but here is an approach that is being used at Ephesus, has been used by the devil from the Garden of Eden and down to our day. These false teachers try to start with the women. We all know what happens, we joke sometimes. An issue comes up and I'll say, well, I'm on whatever side the women are on, I want to win. It's an area we are sensitive to but we all know. If my wife is upset, our house is upset. I'm the leader of the home, I'm in charge, I set the tenor. And when my wife ain't happy, we don't have a happy home.

So you can understand what happens with the false teachers. The infiltrate into the home and they start with the women. Now not just women generally here. So Paul says among them are those who enter into households, enter into the houses. And evidently their procedure was to go from house to house during the day, they are free, and go teach some of the women. The men are out working so they enter into the houses and influence the household. They captivate weak women weighed down with sins. So it's not every woman here, but certain kinds of women are susceptible to this. And basically they are unregenerate people themselves.

So you find out what happens. You get false teachers who themselves are not saved, but they are disguised as believers and they may think themselves saved. They are teaching things contrary to the Word of God. But you know what? There are unbelievers in the church who find that teaching appealing and respond to it. And a particular audience for these false teachers in the church at Ephesus was the women. And not just the women, but the weak women. Now this is just the word woman, we have two words here, weak women. It's one word in Greek, it's the word for woman and it has a diminutive ending. So a literal translation of it would be little women. But it was a derogative term, it meant foolish, childish women. He is not speaking that every woman in the church would be impacted this way. But what Paul speaks of very derogatorily, weak women, foolish women, silly women, childish women who really are ungodly women. But they are also part of the church family so to speak. But they open their homes to these false teachers and their influence.

Now we know that these are ungodly women because of the way he is going to go on to describe them. There is a pattern here. These teachers are entering into these houses to delude and deceive these women, but they are doing it in an underhanded way. That word translated enter, they enter into households, the margin of my Bible has creep into. Some of your translations use that. It's a word that means to do something in an underhanded way. Here in the context obviously they creep into in the sense, one translator said worm into. They work their way in with their influence to these vulnerable women and bring their teaching. You see there is an underhandedness here, this is a consistent pattern of the devil. Remember in the Garden of Eden when he confronted Eve, he didn't say, God just lies, you can't believe what He says. What did he say? He said, you're going to be like God, you're going to know good from evil. You know there is an element of truth in that. Adam and Eve ate of that fruit, they understood and knew about evil in a way they had never known before. These teachers come as deceivers, but they enter into. They don't knock on the door and say, I want to tell you that your church is teaching you wrong doctrine. They're much more deceptive than that. They're going to help them.

Come back to Jude before we move on. The pattern of the devil does not change and this is why the church is at risk, at danger. These false teachers are so good at what they do that they are able to make their way in among believers and get established and get their error established so that they can divide the church and cause conflict. Verse 4, for certain persons, now notice, have crept in unnoticed. See that same kind of emphasis. Have crept in unnoticed. They've worked their way in among you believers and they haven't been recognized as false teachers. Those who long beforehand were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons. We saw something of their description in the first part of II Timothy 3. They turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. They deny everything Jesus Christ is and is about and yet here they have not been noticed in among believers. It's done in a very deceptive way.

Back up to II Peter 2. You see the pattern is the same. Verse 1, but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you. What will they do? They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. They introduce secretly destructive heresies among us. We don't want to underestimate the ability of the devil to delude and deceive.

One more passage, Galatians 2. We won't set the context here, look at verse 4. But it was because of the false brethren, note that, false brethren, those who pretended to be believers but were not, were disguised as believers. They had a form of godliness, had appearance. False brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty. You see that, they are false brethren, secretly brought in, sneaked in to spy out. How can I get this point across clearly enough to you? They weren't genuine, they were there to delude and deceive.

Come back to II Timothy 3, you see the same emphasis. The devil's strategy continues to be the same. We're going to see before we're done that this goes all the way back to the early history of our Old Testament, the days of Moses. The strategy of the devil is the same. So verse 6, for among them are those who enter in, creep into, sneak into households. Not that they surprise them that they're here, but they work their way in by delusion. They come as someone who is going to bring them truth. They enter into households and captivate. Used in a military context of taking captives in warfare. Here it's used as a metaphor and figure of speech, to deceive or delude, mislead. So win them over as converts, if you will. And thus have them in their grasp. These weak women, little women, foolish women.

Now he's going to describe these women with four participles, participial phrases. Participles in English we usually think of them as having “ing” on the end. So we could say in the first one, weighed down with sins, or having been weighed down with sins. It's a perfect passive participle. Remember perfect tense, something happened in the past and continues in the present. He describes these weak women as those who are under the burden and load of sin. They have been under this burden and load of sin, it has never been lifted. This is their state condition, this is what they have been and continue to be. They are weighed down, overwhelmed with the burden of their sin. That's their condition. They are ladies that are aware of their sinful condition. You know as we often talk about. Often in religion it is women who are the most involved, they become often the driving force, they are the most faithful. Here these women, these foolish women, they are under the burden and load of their sin, it weighs upon them. So they are open.

I had some neighbors years ago, dear elderly people who I believe came to know the Lord before they died. But this dear woman was up and went down to her church every single morning, seven days a week to pray. Her husband didn't get out of bed to go, she did. She was sure to pray for him, but had no concept of true, genuine forgiveness. But she had that sense of the burden and load and guilt of sin, but was open to the false teaching that supposedly was providing an answer.

The second participle, they are being led on by various impulses. Word translated impulses is the normal word for lusts, desires in the New Testament. They are led on by various desires, they are governed by a variety of desires of lust. That word translated various is multifaceted, Joseph's multicolored coat. It's used of the multifaceted grace of God, God's grace has such variety to it. So here their lusts have such variety. So they are led, controlled, that's a present participle. They have been under this load and burden of sin and they continue in the present to be led by their sinful desires. They are controlled by sin, whatever those desires may be, their longing, their lusts are sinful. That's their continued condition. Their lusts control them.

Turn over to Titus again. What Paul is remind believers through his letter to Titus is the condition we were all in as unbelievers before we were saved. Look at Titus 3:3, for we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts. Various lusts, we have it translated various impulses in II Timothy, it's the same exact Greek expression. You'll note here they are enslaved to all kinds of lusts and desires. That's a characteristic of the unregenerate person. We were in that condition until God's redeeming grace set us free from slavery to sin. So these weak women under the burden and load of sin are being controlled by a variety of sinful desires and lusts.

Back in II Timothy 3. The third participle, always learning. They are perpetual learners, they always want to know more. And often again that is true, women have an interest in finding out more about things, and in spiritual things it seems they are the ones who want to know, they are the ones who will read the material, listen to the teaching. And they want to take it in because they are under this burden of sin, they are being controlled by their lusts. And here is the teacher who seems to have the answer that can bring them freedom.

I remember a number of years ago reading the biography of Rasputin, a monk who had such influence in Russia and particularly the royal family in Russia. And to read the influence of this man, particularly on the women and the women in the royal family, indeed it was satanic. Like he got a supernatural hold of people, sounding intelligent and knowledgeable but taking it in and trying to tell her husband about what is happening and you ought to pay attention to this man and looking for an answer. But they are looking in the wrong place to the wrong people.

They are always learning, but the balance is the fourth participle—they are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They are never able, don't have the ability to come to the truth, the knowledge of the truth. The knowledge of the truth is salvation.
Look back in I Timothy 2:3, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now after we are saved we come to the knowledge of the truth, the truth of God as it is found in Jesus Christ, as it's found in His Word. The eyes of our understanding are opened and we know the truth and the truth makes us free.

Look over in II Timothy 2:25, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth. It's that repentance, that turning from sin and turning to Christ, the knowledge, the genuine knowledge of the truth. Over in Titus 1:1, Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and of the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness. See when you come into a saving knowledge of the truth of God and the truth of His salvation, you understand that it is a truth that produces godliness in the life. The very opposite of what these false teachers are. We're talking about the knowledge of the truth, God's salvation that cleanses you, makes you new, now you live as a servant of righteousness and not as a servant of sin. Now you live under the control of the living God, not under the control of the god of this world. They are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. You don't find the truth in false teachers, you don't find the truth in those who are living ungodly lives. And you know the devil is extremely clever. If you're going to make a counterfeit, you have to make it as much like the real thing as possible. Remember these teachers are those who have a form of godliness but have denied its power. These women who become susceptible to their teaching are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. There can be a lot of scripture there but no salvation. Jehovah Witnesses come and run you ragged with scripture. You know what? No one ever gets saved by listening to the scripture as the Jehovah Witness presents it. You know why? It's been mixed with error. The devil has the antidote to the power of the gospel, he can nullify its effectiveness by mixing it with error and thus making it powerless to bring about salvation. The Roman Catholics are great when using scripture, they've gotten more capable in using scripture. But you don't get saved by hearing the Roman Catholics present their doctrine. Why? It's the error that has destroyed the power in the gospel. We look and say, we agree on the Bible as the word of God, we agree on the virgin birth, we agree on the death of Christ, we agree on the resurrection. We agree on these things, let's focus on what we agree on. But it's what we disagree on that is the central issue. It is salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone.

And these errors come. Someone comes into the church and a false teacher that would get accepted among us and we would recognize. It's not going to be because they say, I don't believe portions of the Bible. It's going to be by subtly to teach the Bible and seem to believe it, by looking genuine. That's the only kind of counterfeit that makes any impact. So that's what these men do and they find an audience among these women. And that's where the devil starts. Then as the men come home these women can share what they learned, how good it is and what a difference it makes. Pretty soon you have, maybe you ought to sit and hear what he has to say. Now we have division in the church and influence begins to spread.

Back to II Timothy 3. When we get down to verse 15 which we will not in this study, Paul will make clear that it is the scriptures that make us wise to salvation. So we present the scriptures in their purity. You know this has been a problem in the church at Ephesus, the place women are to play and their responsibility as godly women. Come back to I Timothy 2. We've done our study on this a little while back, but here in I Timothy 2:9, talking about women and how they are to conduct themselves. They conduct themselves as godly women, these would be true believers. Even there a woman must quietly receive instruction, verse 11, with entire submissiveness. I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet. Goes back to the issue of creation and the fall into sin. You see here Paul finding it necessary for the church at Ephesus to address the proper role and place of a woman. So it is the responsibility of the man. You come over to I Timothy 5, he's talking about enrolling elderly women who don't have family to help take care of them, the church then would help provide for them. But verse 11, refuse to put younger widows on the list. For when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ they want to get married, incurring condemnation because they set aside their previous pledge. At the same time they learn to be idle as they go around from house to house, not merely idle but gossips, busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention. Again, you see this household, goes from home to home. Therefore I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, give the enemy no occasion for reproach. What's the problem? For some have already turned aside to follow satan. This is not just a minor issue, this is talking about individuals who have turned aside to follow satan by doing what he wants, not what God says He requires.

So it becomes an issue in the church at Ephesus and Paul addresses it again now in a more serious way, talking about the influence false teachers have with unbelieving women. The pattern God has established is clear and the role and responsibility of men. We still have to battle this today. We are responsible as men. How do the false teachers come into our homes? Well, turn on the radio. The most popular program on Christian radio, by their own analysis 90% of their listening audience is women. How do we discern whether that teaching is biblical or not? Through that media they can bring that influence into my home, books that are read. Women tend to be more readers than men. We have to be careful otherwise they are not only listening to teaching that is not what God has, but they are reading it and it's a detrimental influence. We have to be careful what comes into our homes.

Turn over to Titus 1:10, false teachers pervade the Word of God. How do they work? For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, Jews who are presenting themselves as converted Jews, believers, but they are abusing people with the wrong teaching on the Law. Who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole households. Remember he writes in II Timothy 2? They are sneaking into houses, here they are upsetting whole households, families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. So a reminder to the men of the responsibility they have in your home. In our home I prefer not to have that teaching come in that way. Doesn't mean my wife is not a godly woman, but God has given me certain responsibilities. Does that mean I tell her not to read? No, but I am responsible for her spiritual wellbeing. I don't have time to listen all day to Christian radio, sort it out and be exposed. So certain things I've determined won't come into our home. You have to decide as a man and husband and wife together.

But these things come in, you see where it started—in the house. And pretty soon the church is now impacted by it. Paul is writing to Timothy, as he told him in the first letter how to conduct himself in the church, the family of God, the pillar and support of the truth. These false teachers are making their way into the house and into the church, it's the house. But the guidelines set down in scripture are clear how we are to be regarding the teaching and the scripture is to be observed. And once we depart from the order we open the door to problems that become very difficult to deal with.

Come back to II Timothy 3. He's talked about how these false teachers make inroads, now he comes back to talk about the false teachers themselves. And he draws a comparison. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. So he's going to draw a comparison now between these false teachers. We're back to the false teachers now, not talking further about the women. Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. We're not going to take the time to go back, you can go back to Exodus 7-8 and you can read the context there. Remember when Moses went as God's representative to be the deliverer of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He was given the power to do miracles. And you know what happened? In those opening miracles the magicians of Egypt came and replicated them. Moses threw his staff down and it turned into a snake, he picked it up and it turned back into his staff. You know what? The magicians could do that. How did they do that? The Bible never talks about how they did it, it doesn't matter. But what they are doing is opposing Moses and in opposing Moses they are opposing God and the truth that God has brought through Moses. Now here we are told their names, Jannes and Jambres. The interesting thing is they are never named anywhere else in the Bible. How did Paul know it was Jannes and Jambres? Moses didn't say that, they're just called magicians. Evidently the names were passed on in history. We can go back 150 years before Christ in the Jewish writings before the New Testament time and find their names. So evidently it was passed on and they were identified as two brothers who were magicians in Egypt. At any rate it is well enough known, it even appears in some non-biblical or non-religious literature as well, the names of these men. They are named here. The point is they opposed Moses. That's the point of comparison here first. They opposed Moses, now note, so these men also opposed the truth. So you'll note, it doesn't change. The strategy of the devil, what did he do? He brought counterfeits who could act like real representatives of God to oppose Moses through counterfeit miracles and imitate Moses so that the message of Moses would be rejected that God had said, let my people go. These false teachers come the same way. They are counterfeits. They may replicate and duplicate much that looks like genuine Christianity, but the bottom line is they oppose the truth of God. They deny the power, they oppose the truth. How do you know? You can't see their heart, how do you know what is in their heart? God tells me. If what they are teaching is contrary to His revealed word, they are opposing the truth. If their lifestyle and conduct is contrary to the Word of God, they oppose the truth that God has revealed. This idea of judge not that ye be not judged, people throw that around. That's right, I don't judge them, God has judged them and here is what He has said. All have sinned. I know you're a sinner. How do you know I'm a sinner? You can't see my heart. No, but the One who does see the heart has told me, right? All have sinned. I had a professor who used to remind us, all means all, that's all means. So I take it you're an all, that means you are a sinner. There is none righteous, none, not even one. So I know you are not righteous, you are not yourself. On we go. So what the Word of God says is clear. I can't judge a heart, I can't judge a motive, but I can tell you that a person who teaches contrary to the Word of God is opposing the truth. Their life is immoral. A person claims I'm a believer, I'm just living in immorality is a liar because the scripture says so. So it's not a matter of our being in a position to judge other people's hearts, it's a matter of God is in a position to judge the hearts. Then He had it written down for us according to the law and testimony. If they do not speak according to this word it is because they have no dawn, Isaiah 8. In other words the Word of God is the standard. If they don't speak according to the Word of God it's because they have no dawn, no light. They live in darkness.

So Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. These men also oppose the truth. They present themselves as teachers of truth, but when they teach things that are contrary to truth they undermine the truth. We go through this, is the Bible sufficient, is the work of Christ sufficient. You have an attack on the sufficiency of Christ to set you free from sin. Yet multitudes of churches go to secular psychiatry and psychology to help people deal with sin because the Bible is not sufficient. It's an attack on the work of Christ. Where is the church in speaking and opposing these kinds of things? There's a doctrine infiltrating the evangelical church today, I'll bring examples later on in our study, that the Bible is not sufficient, it was never intended to be our sole resource. My goodness. We're going to deal with this when we talk about all scripture is inspired by God. What in the world? How does this get into the church? People aren't paying attention, they're not realizing, they're not knowing this, they're not watching, they're not avoiding. So they oppose the truth.
They are men of depraved minds, their mind is totally corrupted. The place, the center of their ability to think is corrupted, defiled, depraved. That's why you cannot reason with them, win the arguments, or prove it to them. They have a depraved mind, they are corrupted in mind. That's why it's futile to enter into arguments, debates. We're going to show that we have the superior argument, we can prove it. You cannot prove it to them because they have a depraved mind, they don't have the ability to think it through, to sort it out. Why do they do and teach such dumb, stupid, destructive things? That's the answer, they have a depraved mind. Or as Romans 1 puts it, they are darkened in their minds. They have no ability to see light. They are depraved in mind, they are rejected in regard to the faith.

You know we talk about the word for being approved by God—dokimos. It means something is put to the test and then found to be genuine. We talk about gold is refined, put to the test, and it is revealed to be pure gold, refined gold, tested gold. We are being tested by God and found genuine. This is that same word with an “a” on the front to make it negative—adokimos. They are not approved, they have failed the test of the faith. You put them to the test of the faith, the truth and they fail. That's the standard. They have been rejected in regard to the faith, they have failed the test of the faith. Measure their teaching, measure their conduct and they are revealed for what they are.

So he summarizes it up, but they will make no further progress. Well, that's a relief, it looked like they were going to win the battle. They win battles, they don't win the war. You think this false teaching will keep spreading and spreading because, remember, it's like gangrene in II Timothy 2:17. That's why we have to deal with it. But they will not make further progress, these false teachers. For their folly, you might say their mindlessness, it's the word mind with a negative on the front. Their folly, their mindlessness will be obvious to all, just as Jannes' and Jambres' folly was also. What happened to Jannes and Jambres, these magicians who opposed Moses? It got to the gnats, they couldn't reproduce gnats; it got to boils, they couldn't even show up because they were down with boils. They were revealed to be false, they had no power. They had the ability to fool people. But over time they were revealed for what they were. You know what? These false teachers will be revealed. You say, is this just the judgment day ultimately? Well for sure, then, everybody will be revealed. But even now, what happens to error? Error makes its way into the church, frugal leaders recognize error and battle against it, oppose it, stand against false teachers, and refuse to have anything to do with them. You know what? Pretty soon bad error passes off the scene, doesn't it? I have books in my library on the history of heresies. You read some of those and say they look silly today, the church doesn't pay attention to that. That's the way heresies are in the rearview mirror. But when you are currently involved in the battle and the teaching is going on you say, I don't know that I can sort this. When the church stands, what happens? It is purified. There must be divisions among you so that those who are approved, who pass the test may become evident. So here we are 2000 years later, has error won? No, it hasn't, we are here studying the truth. Churches all over this country and around the world are studying the truth. Does the devil quit? No, there will be times when he will come at it with this error, this error. But we have to stay with the truth. Heaven and earth will pass away, my words will not pass away. The Word of our God stands forever. Heresies will rise, heresies will fall. New heresy comes and it fades off, the Word of God stands forever. That's the tragedy of churches getting on the current thing, jumping on the fads of the day. They come and go. We have to be ready to move to the next new thing, to move from the seeker service to the emergent, to move to the next thing. But you know the truth of God stands forever.

This is not new, the devil has always worked the same way. That's why Isaiah could say, the word of our God stands forever. That's why Paul has to remind them as he gets to the end of this chapter to remember all scripture is God breathed. It is the scriptures that make you wise to salvation. It's when the church fails to plant its feet, to stand, to refuse to tolerate the closest family member, the closest friend who grew up with the truth that there is trouble. We will have battles too. I don't believe we as a local church have fought our last battle. I believe II Timothy 3:1, know this that in the last days difficult seasons will come. It will be so until I retire and then someone else will be responsible for the next battle. The battles will come when we are least expecting, from sources we would least expect. But we are prepared, we know what they are like. We are on guard against these things. We know something of the strategies they use. And we try to be as biblical as we can to prepare ourselves as a defense against that. That comes to even the proper role for a man and a woman, which will help keep us from getting into such difficulties. You know it is much easier to deal with a difficulty before it infiltrates, than after it is there.

I've had a cold for a couple of weeks. It's so much easier to prevent a cold than it is to get rid of it once you've got it. I can just stay home locked in my room, have no contact with anyone. I don't think I would have gotten it. Now you get it and some things just won't go away. You know what happens when error comes to the church? If we're prepared and see it before it gets its hold, we stand against it. You know what happens though if people make their way in and they successfully spread it, it's like the tentacles make their way here and there into families. Now it becomes a bloody battle all the worse to deal with. But nonetheless the church, as it realizes and sees error, must deal with it. It's the scriptures that bring salvation, we want to bring the knowledge of the truth to lost men and women.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for establishing us as your church in this place, one of many, many thousands and thousands of churches that you have raised up across this country and around the world, centers of truth, the pillar and support of the truth. Lord, I would thank you that the error and the false teaching that bombards the truth from without and within will not win the victory. The foolishness, the mindlessness of the error of the devil will be overcome. Thank you for the spiritual insight and wisdom you have given us as your people. Thank you for your word that has been entrusted to us. Thank you for the presence of the Spirit of God in our hearts and minds. May we above all be faithful to you day by day. We pray in Christ's name, amen.