How to Discern False Teachers (Pt.2)

2 John  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:00:07
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What are the consequences of entertaining and listening to false teachers? Join Pastor Steve as he looks at 2 John 1:8-13 and shows the two responses we must have.

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INTRODUCTION
We are looking one last time at 2 John
So please take God’s Word and turn to 2 John
Last time we looked at verses 8-9
Today we are beginning our study at verse 10
But so you have the context, I’m going to begin reading at verse 8 down through verse 13
2 John 1:8-13, “8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. 9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. 12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full. 13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.”
It is important that we know what we believe
But in order to do this, we need to know what’s in the Bible
There are many non-negotiable truths that we cannot vacillate on
For example:
We cannot vacillate on who God is - He is One but three individual Persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “The LORD our God is one LORD”
This is echoed in 1 Corinthians 8:6 and 1 Timothy 2:5.
He is One but also three individual Persons
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God”
“God” is the Hebrew word elohim which is both singular and plural
The word itself is singular but the “im” ending is plural
So this singular God exists in some form of plurality
We see that in Genesis 1:26, when it says, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...””
We also see it in...
Genesis 3:22, “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil...”
The second thing we cannot vaclillate on is...
We cannot vacillate on the virgin birth
Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
This verse is quoted by Matthew in Matthew 1:23, but with the added definition of Immanuel: “which translated means, “God with us.”
Luke 1:26-27, “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”
After Mary is told she will have a child and name Him Jesus, she asks...
Luke 1:34-35 “Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”
The Son to be born is Jesus
We cannot vacillate on the deity of Christ
This is also “an essential and non-negotiable tenet of the Christian faith” (MacArthur)
John 1:1, 14. (“and the Word was God”…”and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”)
Since the Bible teaches that God is One but three individual Persons, Jesus is God as also noted by Paul in Titus 2:13 and Peter in 2 Peter 1:1.
The writer of Hebrews quoting God in Hebrews 1:8, “But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.”
The apostle John said in 1 John 5:20, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
We cannot vacillate on the resurrection of Christ
Romans 10:9-10, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” This is the gospel!
Romans 10:13, “for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””
This is a quote from Joel 2:32 where the word “Lord” is the Hebrew word YHWH
We cannot vacillate on the ascension of Christ - Acts 1:9, “And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
We cannot vacillate on the return of Christ
John 14:1-3, ““Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
We cannot vacillate on the Scripture being the Word of God
2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness”
Exodus 20:1, “Then God spoke all these words, saying,”
We cannot vacillate on salvation, that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,”
John says these false teachers vacillated on two main doctrines:
The incarnation of Christ
The Deity of Christ
They said Christ did not possess a body because matter was evil
And since He didn’t possess a human body, He also was not divine
There are false teachers today that attack the Bible by also teaching things that are not true or not mentioned in Scripture and is rank heresy
For example, Kenneth Copeland, and all word faith teachers, believes that all believers are “little gods”
He says, “You don’t have a god in you, you are one!”— (“The Force of One” Audiotape, 1987)
He also says, “When I read the Bible where He (Jesus) says, ‘I AM’, I say, ‘Yes, I AM too!'”- Crusade Meeting, July 1987.
Both of those statements are blasphemy and a denial of the deity of Jesus Christ
Copeland is also deifying man and making himself a god
This is no different than the Mormons who believe they will be gods
John has already told his readers how they are to respond to “the deceivers” (v.7)
He says they needed to first...
LESSON
I. By Watching Yourself (v.8)
Don’t be mislead by them
Don’t be sympathetic to them
You must guard yourself
They needed to always “keep an eye on themselves” (Hiebert) so that they didn’t slip up and become symphatizers with these false teachers
The present tense indicates that this was something they always needed to do
If they did not they were in jeopardy of losing their rewards
John says, “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.”
Second, John says they needed to...
II. By Evaluating What is Taught (v.9)
These false teachers...
They do not continue in the teaching of Christ
The “teaching of Christ” is a reference to the incarnation of Christ
They did “not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” (v.7)
This revealed they never had God in their life
If you reject this basic non-negotiable teaching, it reveals you were never had Christ
Jesus said in John 8:42, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.”
1 John 2:22, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”
John says if you deny that Jesus is the Messiah who was sent from God, you are antichrist and have neither God nor Christ but...
When you continue in the teachings of Christ, it shows you have “both the Father and the Son”
1 John 2:23, “...the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”
He says it again in...
1 John 4:2, “...every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;”
John takes it further by showing us what the incarnation means...
1 John 4:15, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
It’s not just believing in the incarnation but believing that Jesus is God!
Following Christ is very narrow
That’s because...
It’s a narrow gospel
Paul tells us how narrow it is in...
1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
It’s narrow because it revolves around one Person and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ
It’s also narrow because it also revolves around His work of redemption on the cross.
Paul says, He “died for our sins…and…was buried…and…was raised on the third day.”
Since it is a narrow Gospel, meaning that it’s in Christ and His atoning work, it’s also...
It’s a narrow way
The gate is narrow and small - “there are few who find it” - Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
We must, according to Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
The word Jesus uses for “strive” (agonizomai, pres.mid. or pass. imp.) means “to fight, to struggle”, to “agonize”
This is “to exert much effort or energy.”
We are to “strain every nerve to enter because of the supreme importance of attaining entry into the kingdom of God” (NETBFEN).
This “does not imply working for salvation but rather earnestness in seeking it” (EBC).
This is “expressive of the difficulty of being saved, as if one would have to force his way in” (JFB).
This is also paradoxical because Romans 3:11 says, “There is none who seeks for God”
The reason is because he is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph.2:1) which hinders the ability to seek
Dead men don’t seek anything because they are dead
But at the same time Jesus says to seek
This is not a works based salvation
We are saved “by grace through faith…not of works” (Eph.2:8-9), therefore, we cannot save ourselves. “But entering the narrow gate is nonetheless difficult because of its cost in terms of human pride, because of the sinner’s natural love for sin, and because of the world’s and Satan’s opposition to the truth” (MacArthur).
It’ a narrow gospel and a narrow way because...
It’s has an exclusive Christ
Jesus is the only way to heaven - John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
There is no other name given to be saved - Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
So discerning false teachers is by watching yourself and by evaluating what is taught and it’s...
III. By Having the Right Response (vv.10-11)
John says, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;”
The opening “if” (ei) with the indicative assumes that the condition portrayed is actually occurring (Hiebert).
The scene John has in view is not the arrival of some passing traveler who hopes to find needed shelter and entertainment in the home of this gracious matron.”
The verb “come” (erchetai) denotes the purposeful arrival of a traveling missionary with the intention of procuring an opportunity to propagate his message (Hiebert).
“The Third Epistle of John makes it clear that it was an accepted duty of believers to welcome and aid missionaries of the Christian gospel. But that obligation did not apply to the propagator of a heretical, Christ-rejecting message. The established fact that he does not bring “this doctrine,” the teaching about Christ as set forth in verse 9, places him under John’s prohibition. It implies that his identity as a false teacher is known” (Hiebert).
But if for some reason they didn’t know, they needed to...
Find out what he believes
Does he “bring this teaching?”
The same question is true today
Again this is the “teaching” of the incarnation and deity of Christ
If he doesn’t...
Do not receive him
“receive” (lambano, pres.act.imp.)
in your house
or give him a welcome (greeting)
Romans 16:17, “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.”
Titus 3:10, “Reject a factious man after a first and second warning,”
This contrasts 3 John 1:5-8, “Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.”
If you welcome false teachers into your home or give them a welcome, you are participating in his evil deeds
“participates” (koinoneo, pres.act.ind.) means “share in” (LXGNTLEX)
It’s translated “contributing to” in Romans 12:13 and “partook of” in Hebrews 2:14.
It’s the same idea in 1 Timothy 5:22, “Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.”
You need to understand...
Such hospitality implied endorsement of a teacher’s ministry and message, so hosts needed to use theological discernment in offering their home as a “platform” for a visitor’s instruction” (Sproul).
“John’s prohibition is not a case of entertaining people who disagree on minor matters. These false teachers were carrying on a regular campaign to destroy the basic, fundamental truths of Christianity. Complete disassociation from such heretics is the only appropriate course of action for genuine believers. No benefit or aid of any type (not even a greeting) is permissible. Believers should aid only those who proclaim the truth (vv. 5–8)” (MacArthur).
CONCLUSION
According to verse 12, John had many more things to write
But he preferred to “speak face to face” (v.12)
He wanted them to have full joy (v.12)
He concludes verse 13 with another greeting
Most teachers today stay in hotels, so the need to stay in the home is minimal
But we must know what a teacher believes and teaches before we follow or endorse their ministry
I would strongly urge you to make a note of those who are false teachers
As I said last time, I urge you to turn off TBN and any teachings on Youtube or anywhere else by these kinds of teachers
What teachers am I referring to? People like Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince, Joyce Meyer, Steven Furtick, TD Jakes, Jesse Duplantis, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Bill Johnson, Sid Roth, Andrew Wommack, Rod Parsley, John Hagee, Larry Huch, Paula White, and Todd White, just to name a few.
. False teachers need the biblical Jesus they reject
And so do some of you
Do you know the Jesus of the Bible?
Do you know the Jesus of the Bible who is God and who became man?
Do you know the Jesus of the Bible who left heaven’s glory to take yours and my sin in His own body and die a horrible death by crucifixion?
Do you know the Jesus of the Bible who resurrected on the third day?
You can know Him this morning
Romans 10:13, “for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””
Saved from what? sin and God’s wrath!
When John the Baptist was baptizing in the wilderness, Matthew says in Matthew 3:7-8, “7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;”
Here is the whole reason why you need Christ!
You need forgiveness for your sin and you need deliverance from the wrath of God!
But it all begins with you first confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Rom.10:9-10)
So I urge you to repent and believe in Christ as we pray
Let’s pray
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