0828 MARKS OF A FALSE TEACHER

AUGUST 28 = JUDE

HOW FALSE TEACHERS WORK

“Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.”

 

These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 

When we take communion, we are one loaf, one cup, one body, and we share that unity with the symbols of our love feast. These false teachers come in as if they are one with us all. But they are out to bring followers for themselves, and they divide the church, rather than to be one.

They are shepherds, so they say. But the job of a shepherd is to protect and feed the flock under their care. Instead, these false shepherds feed themselves, not caring where the sheep are going.

They claim to water and feed those under their care But they bring no rain, and they produce no fruit.

These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. 

They complain about how things are in the church, or they find fault in the lives of those who should be their brothers and sisters. They have no self control and therefore no holiness as examples to follow. They talk themselves up and tell about good things they have done. And to whatever degree they are encouraging you, it could very easily be flattery in order to get you on their side.

I’m saying these people have no place taking leadership positions in a church. And yet they often work their way into such roles, and they have been doing it for 2000 years now. 

So let’s see if we can be the first generation to recognize a false teacher BEFORE they gain a position in our congregation. And let us pray that God will protect his church.

Now let’s take a step back and see the three examples Jude uses to describe the heart of a false teacher:

 

I don’t want to try to list all of the possibly wrong doctrines. But to use the biblical examples Jude does to see what the wrong priorities of false teachers look like:

Woe to them! 

Know this: It will not be good for false teachers in the judgment. If they know the truth but they decide to pursue something else for selfish reasons, the judgment will be sad indeed.

Jesus said woe to you while confronting the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. It’s about what will happen at the judgment that is the great tragedy for them. And that’s because in their own corruption they led others astray to face judgment as well. Talk about selfish! “I don’t want to obey God, so I’m going to make it easier for others to join me in disobeying him.”

They have taken the way of Cain; 

CAIN’S BETTER IDEA

Cain brought an offering that was not accepted. His brother brought one that was. For the moment, ignore just what he brought, and let’s look at the response.

Cain is all pouty around the house. “His face was downcast.”

“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.””

It’s true, isn’t it? When we do wrong, jealousy and envy, in this case, are crouching at the door, looking to jump you when you are not paying attention. Temptation to sin desires to HAVE you—it is NOT in your best interest to be jealous and envious—but you must rule over it.

Did Cain listen to this good advice about choosing self-control and love instead of envy and revenge? No.

“Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.”

There was a premeditated plot. What kind of worshiper gets so competitive with his worship that he is willing to deceive a true worshiper in his family and kill him? “Let’s go play some ball! I’ll bring a shovel! Let’s go hunting, just you and me.” And I will kill you because God likes you more than me.

“There! Now, see what good it did you to do what God said now, brother! You lose!” And Cain buries his brother’s body so no one would find the evidence. And he walks back home to play the role of the innocent. It’s a big field, after all, and they’ll never find where I buried him. But he forgets that God can see all.

The Lord comes to Cain:

“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.””

Homeless. Prodigal son. No income. No welcome anywhere. Will you realize that you can come back home if you repent? But no, you’d rather die than to repent. You’d rather suffer in your pride than to humble yourself and live. So you wander like a restless wanderer on the earth for the rest of your long, 900 year life.

DISCUSSION: *WHAT CAN WE LEARN TO WATCH FOR IN A FALSE TEACHER LIKE CAIN?

they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; 

BALAAM’S BETRAYAL

Balaam is another example of a person who had conversations with God himself, but who chose to disobey. More accurately, to “selectively obey.” Just obey the parts that I agree with or that work for me.

If you are reading about Balaam in other passages of the Bible, you will see him delivering a powerful prophecy about the coming Messiah that is spot on. So God used Balaam to strengthen the faith of people many generations later.

But it is all the rest of Balaam’s behavior that leads Jude to categorize him as a false prophet. We will briefly cover those.

Balaam is a prophet, not an Israelite, but he is known for saying true things. That’s a bit uncomfortable for being able to trust him in the first place. He’s got a thriving business: PROPHECIES FOR A BUCK. You know, sort of like telling someone their horoscope, or rent a prophet for a child’s birthday. He says you’ll live to be a hundred and ten and you are going to marry someone in this room. If you do it right, parents are happy and no one can prove that you were wrong until you are long gone.

IN any case, he’s just hanging around the office when he is approached by a king of an enemy of Israel. The king wants Balaam to prophesy something bad about Israel as a nation. Says he’ll pay double if Balaam can deliver a true curse on those millions of Israelites camping in the valley. 

Balaam looks up from the papers on his desk. These guys are well dressed, carrying a big bag of cash with them. They certainly seem to be legit. Balaam tells them this is a big job and that if they want him to speak against the God of Israel, he’s going to need to inquire before he goes. Stay overnight, and I’ll give you an answer in the morning.

That night, sure enough, the Lord shows up and talks to Balaam in a dream. God says, “don’t go with them.” Balaam hears it loud and clear. In the morning, he tells the messengers thanks for the offer, but no can do. The messengers disappointedly return to their king, and Balaam goes back to his work as a meteorologist. (There’s a lot of false prophecy in the weather predicting business, you know.)

The next day, the messengers are back again, with an even more generous offer. And now Balaam commits his first sin: He inquires again of the Lord, asking again a question that God already gave him a clear answer to.

The same is true for us today, by the way. Never go back to the Lord to ask the same question that he already answered. It’s like when you ask your parent about whether you can do a thing, and your parent says no. So you come back to them again the next day with the same question. Parents, what do you say when you are asked something like this? “Didn’t I already give you an answer yesterday? What do you THINK the answer is today? It is still a big ol’ NO!”

At which point, you likely bring up why today the circumstances are different. “Jimmy’s parents let him do it.” “I got a good grade on my report card and thought it might be my reward.” “But it’s a dumb rule, and you need to trust me.” And so we establish that we came back to ask the same thing because there’s a different factor that seems to make it okay. In Balaam’s case, he says, “But they are paying me twice as much! Think how much I can give to charity!” And God does what he does when we come back and ask a question that he already answered. He says, “Okay, you may go. But you may only say things that I will tell you.”

So Balaam answers his new friends, “God says I can go. But I’m only allowed to say what he tells me.” You know how this is going to turn out, don’t you? Because you know how it works for every child who has ever lived when they wear down a parent to get their reluctant permission. He’s going to undermine the Lord’s word somehow.

This is where Balaam’s most famous scene comes up, where his donkey talks to him. An angel is standing in the road, but Balaam doesn’t see it, because he, of course, is not on God’s wave length here. But his donkey sees the angel and is afraid. Balaam is really, really impatient with his donkey, as we get when we are outside of the will of God. And God speaks to Balaam through his donkey to repeat the conditions of what the prophet is allowed and not allowed to say. “Only speak what God tells you to speak, no more and no less.” And like the child he is, Balaam rolls his eyes and says “sigh! You already told me that. I already told you I’ll only say what you tell me to say, no more and no less.”

And so he arrives and the king offers him a great reward if he will curse Israel, and Balaam says he’d be glad to but he’s only allowed to say what God tells him. And Balaam proceeds to deliver that strong Messianic prophecy.

Now the king is really upset. “I thought i was paying for you to curse those Israelites! Instead, you bless them!” Balaam reminds him of the contract. And then Balaam gives advice that the Bible doesn’t record, except for right here.

Balaam takes the king aside and says, “God is going to bless them. I can’t stop that. But I can tell you how to defeat the Israelites. Get your women to go down there among them and intermarry, and when the Israelites have committed adultery and other sexual sins, and your idol worship has infiltrated their people, then Israel will no longer be protected by God. And that’s how you can defeat them. Can I get my money now?”

And it all happened, just aS Balaam had said.

He was a prophet who delivered a true prophecy. But he never belonged to the LORD, and he functioned as a false teacher, like these guys who had infiltrated the church.

A clock that has stopped is right twice a day. And a false teacher who is out for self, sooner or later, will stumble upon truth. But you cannot TRUST them.

DISCUSSION: *WHAT CAN WE LEARN TO WATCH OUT FOR IN FALSE TEACHERS LIKE BALAAM?

 

KORAH’S REBELLION

they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. 

This time we find a guy named Korah, who opposed Moses. He was tired of having Moses give all the laws and all the directions. And he was tired of going around in circles and having Moses be the only one who was hearing from God, with all the tough times they were facing. So, with about 250 others, they came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the rest of us?”

Moses said, “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him and who is holy. So let’s all take censers with burning coals and incense before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites are the ones who have gone too far!”

“You Levites were separated by God himself to be set apart for him. Isn’t that enough? You are demanding too much now! Come tomorrow with incense before teh Lord, and we shall see who he accepts and who he rejects.”

As soon as Moses said that, the ground opened up beneath Korah and his household and all his followers, and they were swallowed up.

There is such a thing as an anointing from God. It is not based on talent, but on calling. Not on personality, but on spiritual gifting. And as David learned, do not touch the Lord’s anointed, even when the anointed one is imperfect.

DISCUSSION: *WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT FALSE TEACHERS FROM KORAH?

 

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 

keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. 

THE SOLUTION FOR YOU:

BUILD YOURSELVES UP IN FAITH

PRAY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

KEEP YOURSELF IN GOD’S LOVE

WAIT FOR THE MERCY TO BRING YOU ETERNAL LIFE

Be merciful to those who doubt; 

save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

THE SOLUTION FOR OTHERS:

BE MERCIFUL TO DOUBTERS

SNATCH OTHERS FROM THE FIRE

SHOW MERCY, MIXED WITH FEAR TO OTHERS