Paul continues warning the Ephesian elders about the danger false teachers pose to the Church. We'll survey some of what the Bible tells us about the motivations and practices of false teachers, along with some practical examples.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
And as we rejoin our study in the Book of Acts, as we've been hanging out here for the past few weeks, the apostle Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, he's stopped in the coastal town of Miletus, where he has called the elders of the church from nearby Ephesus to come and meet with him one last time. Ephesus was one of the most important cities in the Roman province of Asia, which is present-day Turkey, and Paul had planted a church while ministering there for around three years. Last week, we talked about wolves, men who come in from outside the church and seek to draw believers away from the faith. Scripture tells us these wolves are not believers.
They are sent by Satan, and their goal is to devour the faith of those they seek to deceive. And their means of deception is false teaching doctrines that do not line up with the word of God. Any of us are free to ask questions. You're free to explore the faith. But when someone comes into the church and seeks to spread unbiblical ideas and tries to change people's minds in a way that goes against the word of God, they gotta go.
And should that ever happen here, the elders of the church will act for the good of the flock. We ended our previous study. As I said in the middle of Paul's parting words to the Ephesian elders, I want to share just a few more thoughts about these savage wolves that Paul referred to in verse 29. And then after that, we're going to focus on false teachers in verse 30. If you had no idea what a wolf was, and I wanted to teach you about the dangers of wolves, a good place to start would be by showing you some pictures of wolves and talking about how you can identify them.
That's what the Bible is going to do for us today. It's going to show us some pictures of what false teachers look like and teach us how we can identify them. Paul wrote about these savage wolves in greater detail to his pastoral protege, Timothy. These verses will be on your outlines, he said, the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared. Now get this.
They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth. So, interestingly, Paul gives a couple of specific examples of false teachings. He says that wolves will teach things like marriage is forbidden for people who want to be truly spiritual. And I'm just so thankful that Paul gave us this example because, I mean, if he didn't, we would have churches where people claim to be Christians and yet teach that marriage is forbidden for men who want to be spiritual. I mean, can you imagine that happening?
That would be so strange. Think on that harder if you're not connecting the dots. Paul also says that forbidding certain foods from being eaten is an example of false teaching. I mean, imagine a church telling people what they can and cannot eat. That would be crazy.
I mean, unless you're a Seventh Day Adventist. Paul identifies these kinds of issues as false teachings. Now please hear me. He doesn't say, hey, guys, there's room in the family of God for lots of different perspectives on these issues. He lumps them in with, quote, the teachings of demons, almost as if Christians are not supposed to add or take away from what the Bible says.
In verse 30, Paul warns about another danger the church will face. He says men will rise up even, and then underline this from your own number. And then underline "distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them." Shockingly, Paul tells the elders that in the days to come, some of their own church members would become prideful and desire to have the brethren follow them. They won't generally teach blatantly false things like God isn't real.
Paul says they will distort the truth. That word distort literally means to twist and manipulate the truth so that it's no longer the truth, but it still kind of sounds like the truth. If you're trying to make a counterfeit $100 bill, you don't get your crayons, your scissors, and a piece of paper. You do everything you can to make it look like the real thing while not actually being the real thing. That's what false teachers do with the truth.
How can we make this sound as much like the true gospel as possible without actually being the true gospel? How can we make this sound as legit as possible without actually having any real power to save? Such persons are overcome by the sin of pride, and it blinds them to the truth. They will often seek a point of contention with the elders so that they can then rally people in the church around that issue and draw them away from the church to themselves. These are folks who want power and influence in the church, like Absalom, David's son in two, Samuel 15.
It says this about Absalom. It says he would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a grievance to bring before the king for settlement, Absalom called out to him and asked, what city are you from? If he replied, your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel. Absalom said to him, look, your claims are good and right, but the king does not have anyone to listen to you.
He added, if only someone would appoint me judge in the land, then anyone who had a grievance or a dispute could come to me and I would make sure he received justice. Paul says, watch out for people like that. When the elders are leading well and they're doing what is godly, such men or women may arise and stir up trouble, spreading false accusations and rumors about the pastors of the church, planting doubts and divisions in the congregation. Know they don't really care about you. And it's just too bad that I'm not the pastor of the church, because if I were, and it will lead to most of the time an insurrection or a church split.
And Paul had to deal with such men several times. They would come into churches after he had planted them and seek to prey on these newer, younger Believers. Paul told the Galatians about some such men, saying, they court you eagerly, but not for good. They want to exclude you from me so that you would pursue them. I've seen this happen in churches several times over the course of my life.
I've seen even a pastor embrace an unbiblical issue around an unbiblical position around an issue, rally people to himself. He wasn't the lead pastor in the church. And then take those people and go start his own church, exactly as Absalom did. Hey, the pastors don't really care about you. But if I were pastor of a church, then none of this would be happening."
"Well, you should start your own church." "Oh, really? I hadn't even thought of that." I've seen it happen. They find an issue to rally around.
It's not a biblical issue. It'll be something like this. "You know, it's just too bad our church isn't more Spirit-filled, like Bethel church or something like that. The pastors just don't seem to want the Holy Spirit in this church. We need more freedom.
Don't you agree? Do you know anyone else who agrees?" They won't listen. They're power crazy. They should be listening to us because we know what's best for the church.
Then they'll start meeting in someone's home with all the discontented people they've stirred up. They won't claim they're causing a church split or starting a new church. They'll just say, oh, we're just meeting together to pray for the church because things are going so poorly. We just want to minister to the people who are hurting because the pastors are so uncaring. And then inevitably they start a new church a few months later with those people as the board and the people who have power, all having the power and influence they craved.
I pointed this out last week, but notice the phrase Paul uses in verse 30. He says, men will rise up even from your own number. And I just want to point it out again. A person could not be from their own number unless they had numbered him. And by numbered we simply mean identified.
Paul doesn't tell the Ephesian elders to only watch out for false teachers coming from outside the church. He says they will need to confront false teachers who will rise up even from our own number. That means that somebody who just shows up and starts attending the services is not automatically part of that church's number because that's what a false teacher coming in from the outside is going to do, right? He's going to come in and he's going to start attending services and making trouble. But Paul makes it clear that him coming in and just starting to attend services and talking to people doesn't make him part of the church's number.
He's still in a different category. My point is that the elders distinguished between those who were part of the church and those who were not. And the way they distinguished the difference wasn't simply who showed up last week, it was much more than that. How they distinguished that difference and how they kept track of it administratively is what church membership is. It's keeping track of that.
There's simply no other way to explain the facts of scripture. There's no other way. Now, whether it's savage wolves coming into the church from outside or false teachers rising up from inside, an equal problem. And please hear me on this, because it's easy to just slam people who are outside. Those people don't love God.
There's false teachers. But an equal problem is the number of people who are eager to hear what the false teachers have to say. You see, the supply of something is only a problem if there's a demand for it. And unsurprisingly, there's always a demand for what people want to hear. There's always a demand for people who will tell you what you want to be true.
People want to hear that our works can make us righteous because that makes us our own saviors. People want to hear that God exists to make their lives more prosperous and comfortable. People want to hear that they can indulge their flesh and engage in their preferred sins while still being right with God. And where the demand exists for a product, the supply will manifest. Paul told Timothy, if anyone teaches false doctrine and loves not agree with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that promotes godliness.
He is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions, and constant disagreements among now get this, among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain. Did you catch that last line? Paul specifically identifies the prosperity gospel as false doctrine, writing that people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth imagine that godliness is a way to material gain. I don't know how much more clear Paul could be.
That's how people become caught up in false teachings. They have sinful desires, and they don't know what God's word says. They don't know the truth of God's word. And so what's the solution for elders like those from Ephesus? Guard the church by confronting sin in grace and truth and teaching the word of God so that people can discern for themselves what is true and what is not. Paul also warned Timothy not to be surprised when he encountered people who desired false teaching.
Writing. Know this, hard times will come in the last days, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents. Did you hear that, kids? Ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable slanderers without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good. Traitors, reckless, conceited.
And then I love this line, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but ending its power. Avoid these people. People want to feel like they're right with God, but they don't want to be ruled by God or by his spirit, which he gives to all believers. Paul says they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power, Paul continues, for among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive. Gullible women, overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions, always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
These false teachers would prey on women in the church spiritually, they would find women who were wrestling with shame from their past and point them to false teachings like asceticism and legalism. Teaching that through good works, they could cleanse themselves from their sins. They could balance the scales. And if you've ever wrestled with shame caused by your sins, then you can imagine how appealing such an idea is. Oh, I can just balance the scales out.
I like the way that sounds. They would find women who were being overwhelmed by passions. Use your imagination. Actually, no, don't use your imaginations. And they would offer false teachings that allowed them to indulge those sinful passions.
You don't need to be a genius to figure out why someone would love to hear that. Oh, there's a way to interpret the Bible that lets me do exactly what I want. I'm interested. And the tragedy is that anyone who allows themselves to be deceived in such ways will find themselves. Now please hear this because it's sobering.
They will find themselves always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth because they're learning from false teachers. Have you ever known someone who his always reading books about spiritual subjects and how to better themselves, but they never actually seem to get any wiser. They never actually seem to get any closer to the truth. That happens because people don't want the truth. People want their truth.
They want a truth that allows them to live as they desire, as their own God, the lord of their own life. And the result of that is that they're always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. The truth inherently demands that you make no demands of it. What I mean by that is, if you want to know the truth about anything, you don't get to put preconditions on the table and say, I want to know the truth. As long as it meets these conditions, you cannot have the truth.
If you want the truth, you have to understand that the truth is just the truth. It's not concerned with your approval. It exists whether you recognize it or not. Paul continues talking about false teachers and says, just as Jonas and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth. They are men who are corrupt in mind and worthless in regard to the faith.
Jonas and Jambres were the two magicians present when Moses confronted Pharaoh in his court in the Book of Exodus. And the idea is that just as they witness God's power and truth displayed right in front of their eyes and still refuse to turn to God, so too, false teachers are corrupt in mind and unwilling to see the truth, Peter wrote that false teachers seduce unstable people who have hearts trained in greed, driven by forces like greed and lust and pride. Peter says, they promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. Here's the idea. These false teachers are saying, follow me and you can be free.
And Peter says, but look at them. They're slaves to their greed, to their lust, to their pride. They're not free. How in the world are they going to lead you to the path of freedom? Jude.
That's right. We're going into Jude. This is a deep cut. Jude also warned about false teachers in his epistle. Writing this, it's on your outlines.
I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. For some people who were designated for this judgment long ago have come in by stealth. They are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only master and lord. What is he talking about? Well, to this day, there is a false teaching that ensnares believers who desire to indulge their flesh relationally.
We've got kids in the room today, so we're going to have to play a bit of taboo, okay? It claims that because Christ has died for our sins and made us righteous, we can't sin. I mean, after all, if Christ has made us sinless and our salvation is secure, then that must mean that we can't actually sin anymore and we can just enjoy the grace of God as we live, however we want, knowing that it's covered by the grace of God. As I shared, this heresy is embraced almost exclusively by Christians who want to indulge the flesh relationally. That's why Jude says that false teachers turn the grace of our God into sensuality.
He continues later and writes, woe to them, for they've gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam's error for profit, and have perished in Korah's rebellion. So Jude gives us three pictures of false teachers, men who have denied the faith. They've gone that far from the pages of the Old Testament. And I'm going to paraphrase the pertinent account of each and then explain the connection to false teachers. Firstly, Cain.
He was the infamous brother of Abel. They were sons of Adam and Eve. All the Bible tells us is that at a certain time, both brothers brought God an offering. The Lord was pleased with Abel's offering and received it, but was not pleased with Cain's offering. And rejected it.
Hebrews 11:4 explains that Abel's offering was made in faith, while Cain's was not. And so the issue is that Abel's heart was right. He brought his offering with a right heart, but Cain did not. And so the Lord exhorted Cain to get his heart right and told him that if he did, his offering would be received, too. And the Lord warned Cain not to let anger and bitterness control him.
Cain didn't listen. He went out and committed the first murder in history, taking the life of his brother. Now, here's Jude's point. It's your first fill-in. The ministry of false teachers is unacceptable to God because their hearts are wicked.
When called to repent, they refuse, and only sin more. That's the comparison Jude is making. Just like Cain's offering was unacceptable because his heart was not in the right place, the hearts of false teachers are not in the right place. Their ministry is not acceptable to God. And like Cain, when called by the Lord to repent, they won't.
They'll just sin even more. Then we have Balaam. He was a man gifted by God with the ability to prophesy. But instead of serving God with his gift, he served himself, working for anyone who would pay him. So here's the setup.
Israel is in the wilderness. They've come out of Egypt. They're on their way to the promised land. God is blessing them as a people, and he's causing them to flourish, even in the wilderness. Word is traveling fast in the area that these Israelites serve an unstoppable God who works miracles and gives them victory in battle.
The king of the Moabites, who's in the region, is a guy named Balak. And the Moabites are wicked, evil people. Balak notices Israel getting closer and closer to his part of the world, and there's two to 3 million of them, and he's terrified. So he sends a delegation to Balaam, offering to pay him to curse the Israelites on behalf of the Moabites. Balaam says, listen, it's a bummer, but part of the whole prophet deal is I can't do anything the Lord won't let me do. So he says, but I'll pray. I'll see if I can change the Lord's mind. And so they get together after Balaam prays about it, and he says, guys, I know it's a real bummer, but God says, I can't do it. So it's just not going to work.
Balak is disappointed, but he hasn't given up yet. So sometime later, he sends a delegation back to Balaam saying, listen, I don't think you understand. We're going to pay you a lot of money if you curse Israel for us. And Balaam says, you know, something just feels different this time, and let me go back and ask the Lord one more time. And so he asked the Lord again, can I curse Israel for some cash?
God reminds Balaam that he's already said no, but he says, ok, you can go with the Moabites if you really want to, but you know the deal. You can only say what I tell you. You can say. Balaam says, oh, it's on. He's dreaming of riches, heads off with a smile on his face to meet King Balak.
Balak takes Balaam up onto a hill where they can look over all the Israelites in the wilderness, and he says, okay, man, earn your money. Balaam begins to speak, but all that comes out of his mouth are blessings over Israel. No matter what he tries to do, he just keeps speaking blessings. He can't curse those whom God has blessed. And he has to tell Balak this.
And Balak is understandably displeased. He's not paying Balaam to bless Israel, but he says, you know what? Maybe the energy is wrong in the spot that we're standing. Let's try a different mountain and see if it works over there. So Balaam again begins to speak over Israel, but the only thing that comes out is blessings again.
And so at this point, Balak is highly frustrated. Balaam wants to get paid, as opposed to being executed for scamming the king. So he comes up with a different plan. He says, listen, I want you to be satisfied with my services. And though I can't curse Israel, what I can do is tell you how to get Israel to bring a curse on themselves.
And so Balaam tells Balak, this is what you do. You send out all your good-looking women, and you get them to seduce all the men of Israel and then invite them to join them in their pagan worship rituals, which included certain "recreational" activities. That way, they'll bring a curse on themselves because they're Yahweh's people. And if they get out of line, he's going to step in and discipline them because he loves them and he doesn't want to see them go down a bad path. And here's the thing, Balak - if you do this, you can be the one to benefit when God disciplines his people. And that's exactly how it played out. Now, here's Jude's point, write this down. False teachers enrich themselves by luring people away from God and into sin, just like Balaam did. False teachers enriched themselves by luring people away from God and into sin.
And then lastly, we get Korah. Korah was an Israelite who lived in the time of the wilderness wandering. God had brought Israel out of Egypt. As we said, he was about to lead them into the promised land. But when they got there, to the border of the promised land, they refused to enter because they didn't believe God would give them victory over the people who were already living in the land.
They chickened out. And as a result, God sentenced Israel to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that faithless generation died out. And they had a new generation that would have faith in God and take him at his word that he would give them victory in the promised land. So, Korah, while they're wandering in the wilderness during these 40 years, Korah is a guy from the tribe of Levi, and he worked with the tabernacle, which was the tent that served as the portable temple, while Israel gas is the wilderness. His job was to help transport the tabernacle from place to place.
He was part of the logistics team. But Korah was dissatisfied with his role. He wanted the prestige of being a priest. So we riled up some of the other men who had jobs like him and convinced them that they, too, should be dissatisfied with their positions, kind of like Lucifer's rebellion in heaven. And then they went and confronted Moses, the man God had appointed to lead Israel.
In number 16, we read, they came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, you've gone too far. Everyone in the entire community is holy, and the Lord is among them. Why then, do you exalt yourselves above the Lord's assembly? In other words, who made you the leader of Israel? Everyone.
His special. The answer, problematically, was that God had made Moses the leader of Israel. Knowing that, Moses said, well, let's set up a test where the Lord can make it clear who his chosen leaders are. Moses also tried to reason with Korah. He said to him, isn't it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community, to bring you near to himself, to perform the work at the Lord's tabernacle, and to stand before the community and minister to them?
He's brought you near and all your fellow Levites who are with you, but you're pursuing the priesthood as well. But Korah wasn't content with only serving the Lord where a few people could see him. He wanted the prestige and the public recognition of being a priest. To make a long story slightly shorter, they do the test the next morning, and the Lord opens up the ground to swallow Korah, everyone who sided with him and their families, and they're never seen again. So here's Jude's point.
Write this down. False teachers desire prestige and recognition. They oppose the authority of God's appointed leaders and create division by convincing others to join them in their rebellion. False teachers desire prestige and recognition, oppose the authority of God's appointed leaders, and create division by convincing others to join them in their rebellion. And then Jude comes about false teachers.
They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds, trees in pilate autumn, fruitless, twice dead, and uprooted. In verse 31 of Acts, chapter 20, Paul says to the Ephesian elders, therefore, be on the alert. Remembering that night and day for three years, I never stopped warning each of you with tears. This wasn't new information that Paul was sharing.
Apparently, he'd been warning the Ephesian church about false teachers since he first established it, and he did so with tears because he viewed the Ephesian believers as his children, and he feared for them, knowing that predators would soon come in and try to snatch them away and destroy their faith. If you knew someone was going to try and abduct one of your children, how intensely would you warn them? How much would you train them on the red flags to watch out for? That's the idea here. That's the urgency and intensity with which Paul has been warning the Ephesians.
He knows it's coming and he loves them, and he wants to see them be okay, and so he's warning them with tears. Paul's exhortation to the Ephesian elders was, be vigilant. Elders must constantly be on guard against false teachers coming in from outside the church, and sadly, sometimes even from within. I'm trying to do that in part by teaching messages like this, hoping that it will empower you to more easily identify false teachers. There are two essential things every believer must do to protect themselves against false teaching.
The first one is, you must desire the truth. You must actually desire the truth. You must desire to obey Christ. If you don't want to obey Christ, you are fair game for false teachers. One's loving to show up and tell you what you want to hear.
The first thing you must do is desire the truth. The second thing is, you must know the truth. You must know the word of God. You cannot be a Christian who is ignorant of what the Bible teaches. If you don't actually want to obey Christ, then false gospels that don't require you to obey Christ are going to sound delicious.
And if you don't know what God's word says, then you won't know the truth. And if you don't know the truth, how are you going to identify a lie? What are you going to compare it to? The person in greatest danger is he or she who does not desire to obey Christ and does not know the truth of God's word. It's only a matter of time before a false teacher deceives such a person.
But the good news is that the person who desires to obey Christ and knows his word is protected against the danger of false teachers. However, as the elders are charged to watch over the church, individual believers are charged to vigilantly watch over their own souls and guard their hearts by not associating with false teachers. And the best possible protection is a church where both the elders and the members desire to obey Christ and know his word. That's a best-case scenario. That's what we're aiming for at Gospel City next week.
We're going to look at how they did over the next four decades at heeding Paul's warnings that he shared, likely on the beach in Miletus almost 2000 years ago. And so with that, I'm going to call BJ up to pray for us.