Welcome to today's program. And today I'd like to talk about a topic that is extremely important. And before I get to it, I want to just share with you all, I went to the Machen Conference down at Reformation Bible College. It was their winter conference. I took three of my kids with me. I have a daughter that's a student there. And it was a really great conference. I got to hear some wonderful talks about the life and ministry of J.A. Gresson Machin, about him and his fight with liberalism, with modernism, and the way that he did that, and the fact that he was just such a noble servant of God and just did so much great work for the Kingdom of God. And I'm very thankful for men like Machin who were clear and courageous. And clear and courageous and immovable from the truth, those are attributes that are becoming more and more rare, at least in the United States of America, where everybody wants to be cool. And they even use that illustration. One of the speakers said, it was J.V. Fesco, was saying that that's what modernists are. That's what progressives are. They want to sit with the kids at the cool table at lunch. That's what they're all about. And it was a great conference, a great conference and really affirmed to me the need to be immovable. And the age of drifting convictions and an age of compromise for pragmatic reasons and all this other stuff that's going on today, and whatever's left of Excuse me, sorry, people are posting things over here. So, it was a great conference, very, very thankful for it and thankful that I was able to go and hopefully still be ready to preach on Sunday. But I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who has sent me stuff about to play the game, the Making Heresy Orthodox game, and I've really resisted the temptation to read it all. Now, some of the quotes that people have been sending me are pretty short, and that's fine. That's fine that, you know, they're short, but I'm gonna be timing myself. But before I do that, The reason I want to play that game, the reason I want to play the Making Heresy Orthodox game, is because, in effect, I have had to play that game. Not that I myself have tried to make heresy orthodox, but I have watched many, many, many others do it. With, for example, federal vision writers, with the likes of New Perspective, Defenders, and others. People that like this guy or that guy and they're false teachers and everything else. And the thing is, you can show, if someone's determined enough to make someone orthodox, it doesn't matter what you show them. They will find a way to massage their words to make them orthodox. And so I want to show you how easy that is to do. If you're determined enough to do it, You can find a way around almost anything that anyone ever says, and you can take the most heretical stuff and make it sound orthodox if you use enough, you know, word massaging and subtleties of speech and everything else. However, I want to talk about why I want to do this. And the reason I want to do this is this is something that we're warned about in scripture. The Bible warns us about this very kind of thing, about the smoothness of false teaching, and how false teachers work, and how their defenders and their followers work, and how we need to be able to recognize this stuff, and it's lay people lay people, in addition to their ministers, have got to have the discernment to be able to see through false teachers. So I want to go through a number of passages today in preparation for playing the game, and I've got a bunch of quotes. I mean, it's going to take me at least an entire program probably to get through all the stuff that people have sent me, and I'm very thankful people have emailed me stuff, people have left comments, That's great. I'm gathering them together. I have a folder in my email account here in Gmail that I put stuff in. I'm putting stuff in that has the paragraphs of stuff for the game. Some people actually say who the author is. Like someone sent me a quotation from Rob Bell. Someone sent me a link to a short video by Steven Furtick. So I'm sure those will be fun. Those will be fun trying to make them orthodox. But also, after I do that, after I try to show you how it's easy to use smooth words to make something that's heretical sound orthodox, I'm going to criticize it because I can't leave, you know, gross heresy unresponded to. But I also had, I wanted to let everyone know this, I had a special t-shirt made. It's being printed right now. And on this t-shirt, it says in large capital letters, FALSE TEACHER. And my goal is, when we play the game, I want to wear that shirt. And when I'm responding to stuff, and when I'm making heresy orthodox, When I'm playing the part of a false teacher, I'm going to have my false teacher shirt on. And it says, false teacher, colon. And I gathered all these descriptions. False teacher, smooth talking, flattering, redefining, contradicting, deceiving, waterless cloud, savage wolf, minister of Satan, and master of subtleties, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now, as you're going to see, that is, those are designations taken right from the Word of God. And these are passages of Scripture that, you know, people particularly don't, you know, typically use for devotional purposes, but they're part of divine revelation that we need to be aware of, and we need to know these texts of Scripture because they are perpetually relevant to the life of the Christian church and to its future success in the world. We have to be able to defend the truth against false teaching. And so the first text of scripture I have down here is Romans chapter 16, verse 17. And I've always found this particular text to be very interesting because it's, um, it, it's right there at the end of Romans and Romans 16, you read the first part of Romans 16, it's tons of different names, you know, hello to so-and-so and this person, that person, and just the names of tons of people, but then tucked away in there, you have this, this little warning in these two verses of inspired scripture is extremely important. Romans 16, it's easy to memorize because it's Romans 16 verses 17 and 18. So if you can remember 16, 17, 18. Okay. Those numbers in order is Romans 16 verses 17 and 18. So 16, 17, 18 texts of scripture that are extremely important here. So listen to the word of God here. I'm going to pull up in the Greek here because I know there's some important stuff here in the original language I may want to bring out for you. Okay, now I urge you, brethren, so after all this stuff, all this theology, and all these names, and hi to this person, that person, all these cool sounding names, one of the last things he says in the book of Romans, in this magnum opus of theology, Now I urge you, brethren, I beseech you, parakalo, I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them, and turn away from them. Now the thing that seems to have hit me over the last 20-something years that I've been a ruling elder and a pastor, is everybody knows about these warnings, Romans 16, and then we're going to look at 2 Peter 2, 2 Corinthians 11, 1 Timothy 6, 20, and Acts 20, 28 and following. But people are extremely hesitant to think that these could actually be describing people that they know. And very often it's, well, you know, you want to be charitable, and you should be charitable. You should hesitate before you ever think that these apply to people. But I just want to say to you, I just want to say to you, they will apply to some people that you know at times. It's impossible that you could be a Christian for very long and not have these passages apply to people that you know personally. And when it happens, it's a sad thing and it's a frightening thing. But Paul says here, watch out, brethren. Keep your eye on those who cause dissensions. Note those who cause divisions. and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them, people who argue that we need to learn how to balance biblical fidelity with charity or something like that. Anytime you hear people saying, well, we would never promote false doctrine on creation or women in ministry. We just need to be more tolerant. We need to get along with people who don't hold to the sound teaching on these sorts of issues. And Paul is saying, note those people and turn away from them, avoid them. And then he goes on in verse 18, here's the key. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, now think about that. What would cause someone to say, yeah, we know what scripture teaches about creation. We know what scripture teaches about women in ministry. We know what scripture teaches about the gospel, about justification and sanctification. We know what scripture teaches about the relationship between faith and works and so on and so forth. We know all of that. But what would cause someone to say, it's time for us to be okay with people that deny it? Well, it's not Jesus who would cause that. For those who are such, do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, their own appetites, that there's something that they want that's contrary to the truth, something they want that's contrary to Christ, whatever it might be, whatever it might be, who knows? But they're not serving Jesus when they call for that, when they call for being okay with false doctrine or whatever, but they're serving their own appetite, their own belly, their own desires. Listen to what the rest of the verse says. And by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. Smooth words. By their smooth words and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the simple. Now, Having read a lot of really bad theology over the past 30 years of my life since I became a Christian, almost 30 years, I know what smooth words and flattering speech is, okay? I've read seven books by N.T. Wright. I know what smooth words and flattering speech means, okay? Having read The Federal Vision Man and having listened to every kind of weird heretical group, open theists and every cultic group and listened to their apologists, I know exactly what smooth words and flattering speech sounds like. And I know how smooth false doctrine can be made to sound. I know how smooth false doctrine can be made to sound. Okay, if given an opportunity, in this case, we're going to play the game one minute. Okay, so listen to this little passage again, this little block of text here again. Romans 16, 17, and 18. Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple." Isn't that so sad? So in every church in the world, you're going to have to deal with this battle. These battles are going to happen, and they're going to come up in churches, and people with smooth words and flattering speech, people with winsome personalities and sweet dispositions and the seemingly kind-hearted people, are going to try to lead you astray with false doctrine. Okay. And those that try to defend it are going to have to brace themselves for some pretty vicious stuff. Okay. You just have to be prepared for that. Watch out for the smooth words and the flattering speech, flattering that, that turd, uh, Akakos, uh, Akakos there, uh, guileless, innocent. Okay. They deceive the hearts of the guileless, of the innocent, of the simple. Okay. Those that are simple are going to be deceived by it. That term, exapatao, to seduce holy. They're seduced by smooth words and flattering speech. That term, krestalagias, plausible speech, smooth speech. I'll tell you what, if you're good at it, you can make false doctrines sound like it's orthodox. You can take heretical statements and make them orthodox if you're skilled enough, and I'm going to show you how to do that. Not because I want you to do it, but because I want you to know how to recognize when others are doing it. Okay. Now, let's look at the next passage. 2 Peter chapter 2 is lengthy. But it's very relevant to our day, it's very relevant to every age. I tell you, every time I read 2 Peter 2, there's an individual that comes to my mind, David Koresh, also known as Vernon Howell, the guy that was the head of the Branch Davidian cult there in Waco, Texas, where they committed mass suicide and they burned that whole place to the ground. The thing is, they tried to say that the ATF agents and the FBI set that fire. They didn't. There's recordings of the people inside the building. And there's an eyewitness, a guy named Graham Coderick, who was a member of that cult, one of the eight or nine that survived the fire, who said he saw people doing it and talking about it. No, pour the liquid, pour the gasoline inside, not outside, or outside or not, I forget exactly, but he saw it and has testified about it. And yet he still believes in David Koresh. He still thinks David Koresh was a prophet, even though he set up those fires to burn the whole place to the ground. But the fire was set by the Branch Davidians. But anyway, David Koresh was the head of this polygamous sex cult where he had actually taught that every woman on earth belongs to him and no one else is allowed to be married. Very strange, depraved, disgusting guy. But he's described perfectly. That man, David Koresh, Vernon Howell, is described perfectly in 2 Peter chapter 2. But there's a lot more in 2 Peter 2 that's not just about someone who's, you know, a gross cult leader, like those guys also in Munster after the time of the Reformation, those wild, crazy Anabaptists there in Munster. The Munster Rebellion with, what was it, John of Leiden was one of them. And that was one of the very few times the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics got together to engage in combat with those wild, crazy, polygamous sex cult guys there in Munster. But anyway, 2 Peter 2 verse 1, but there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction, even denying the Lord who preserves them, the Lord that oversees them, the Lord that owns them. Okay, that's not talking about the atonement. So many people use this as a limited atonement can't be true because of this passage. It's not the term, um, agaradzo. I don't think it is agaradzo. Oh, it is agaradzo bought them, but there's no mention of the, uh, purchase price. The blood of Christ is always mentioned when it's talking about the atonement. It's not talking about that here. But the point here, there will be false teachers among you. And what will they do? They will secretly, secretly bring in destructive heresies. Have you ever noticed that? When the devil wants to deceive you, when he wants to deny the Christian faith so that people perish eternally, he doesn't lock on the door, hi, I'm here to deceive you. This is done secretly. And so churchmen, Christians, anyone listening to this, I don't have a very big audience. Although I did pass the 1,000 subscriber mark finally, which is cool. That's great. I'm glad that that happened. And not because a reformed celebrity tweeted something I did, but just through word of mouth, I'm very thankful for that. But there will be false teachers among you. Laity, anyone listening, you need to be aware of that. They will be there. And in your churches, at some time or other, there will be dust-ups and there will arise difficulties. And it will be because of the secret bringing in of destructive heresies. Or someone that was Orthodox will begin to move a little bit in their convictions. They'll start swinging in a progressive direction in their thoughts. And they won't tell anybody about it But they'll start subtly trying to move the church in that direction that kind of stuff is gonna happen So the Word of God tells us watch out for that watch out for people that bring in secretly bring in by stealth Destructive heresies think of Galatians chapter 2 speaks of the very same thing That Certain false teachers can't crept in unnoticed they crept in by stealth to spy out our Liberty and And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. So when the false doctrines are the cause for compromising orthodox doctrine, oh, we would never promote those teachings. Oh, no, no, no, no. But we need to tolerate them. Everyone, please listen. Every Ivy League school in this country used to be a reformed seminary. Every Ivy League school here used to be a reformed seminary. Princeton was a reformed seminary. And it's now a bastion of apostasy and liberalism. But what happened? Why did all the great reform seminaries, the Ivy League schools, why'd they all become apostate? Here's why. They made the decision not to promote Arminianism. Oh no, they'd never embrace it or promote it. Just tolerate it. Because we'll have a more stable group. We'll have a broader influence. We'll be able to reach more people that way. And within a fortnight, every one of them was Unitarian and Liberal. Why? Because a little Levin, Levin's the whole lump. Little Levin, Levin's the whole lump. Is Arminianism Levin? Yes. And everywhere it's ever gone, it degenerates into Liberalism everywhere. You can't compromise on the truth. The time for compromise is never. And when people bring in their secret, destructive, progressive heresies or their calls to tolerate this or tolerate that, you can't give into it. Churchmen, ministers, pastors, elders, you are obligated by the word of God, Titus chapter one, verses nine and following, to refute those who contradict sound doctrine. Well, people are gonna get mad, they're gonna leave our church, our church is gonna be smaller than, well, it's too bad. We're not called upon to do what's pragmatic, to make the church big. You're called upon to be faithful to the truth. Scripture says, there will be false teachers among you, and they will bring in secret heresy, destructive doctrines, and many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. It goes on, verse three, by covetousness, they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time, their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. You hear that phrase there, deceptive words? Okay, wow, plastos is the term. Deceptive logos, plastos. meaning molded, formed, as from clay, wax, or stone, feigned, lying words, deceptive words. It'll sound Christian. It'll sound good. It'll sound plausible. It'll sound smooth. When people deny the Christian faith and they bring in destructive heresies, they do not tell you, okay, I am hereby denying Sola Fide. I'm hereby denying the gospel. From now on, I'm a heretic. No, they try to sound Christian. That's what the liberals did. That Machen conference, if you haven't gone out to Reformation Bible College's website, their YouTube channel, watch the talks about the life of Machen. I was at that conference this past Monday with four of my kids. It was wonderful. What a great conference. So relevant to today. Because what Machen faced, we're facing again now. Listen to what 2 Peter goes on to say here. Pretty politically incorrect stuff here. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and righteous lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked." Okay, stop here for a moment. Those who would live ungodly? So promoting and tolerating heresy and false doctrine is living ungodly? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, think about the parallels that this passage is making here. Those that teach false doctrine bring in destructive heresy. God is putting them in the same category as the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. and the people that died in the flood of Noah. Amazing. Making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. And he delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. I have a question to my small audience that watches these videos. How many of you are feeling oppressed lately by the filthy conduct of the wicked? And yet we're told, no, no, no, you've got to be so tolerant. You've got to be sweet and affirming. You can't be confrontational at all. You can't be confrontational at all. Someone, one of my elders here sent me a really good article. In fact, I need to do a whole podcast on it. that's very sharply critical, and rightly so, of Tim Keller. And the way that Tim Keller preaches the gospel today, and the way he tries to deal with sin today, and the pragmatic way that he does it, I mean, it's just awful. This article was just so upsetting to read. It really was. In fact, let me pull it up here real quick. I want to read a couple of quotations from it because it's It's profoundly disturbing stuff, it really is. And the way that Keller does this stuff is really, it just shows so much. He is so afraid that he might offend somebody with the truth. And it's just, it really is embarrassing. It's really embarrassing to read it. Really is embarrassing if I can find it. Did I put it in my session and diaconate folder? Where is this? My mom, my mom, my mom, my mom, my mom. Did I still have it in here? I thought I saved it. It's a great article. Great article about Keller. Paul's teaching in the PCA still, stuff they're dealing with in the PCA still. Let's see, can I find it or not? Maybe I won't be able to find it. I guess I can't. Oh well. It's okay. It's okay. I'll find it later. Anyway, the way that Keller constantly is trying to massage words and he tries to make it Christianity look like what it's really Everything's idolatry. Everything's idolatry and so no matter what kind of no matter what kind of Sin you're in it's really you're missing out. You're missing out on God's best So we don't want to tell people, you know, you're evil wicked. You need to repent. It's you know, you're you're idolatrous I mean we all Keller says everyone's willing to affirm at least that that we're we're idolatrous we're idolaters of hearts and and that kind of stuff. But, you know, is that really the way the scriptures, do they just identify everything as idolatry? No. They call stuff sin, and they point out that this is going to take you to hell, that you're being evil, that you're being wicked, and you need to repent of what is sin against God. I've got to find this. I've got to read some of these quotes because they're so bad. Because the way that Keller's doing it is a form of subtlety of speech. It's smooth and deceptive words. If I can find it. Let's see. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? This article was really great. I can't find it. I can't find it. I can't believe that. And I can't remember the name of the author. The author was someone I'd never heard of before. But it was really good. Tim Keller. Let's see. Hey, there it is! Found it. Cool. It was in God's providence for me to find it. Okay, good. Okay, here. Listen to some of these. Listen to some of these tweets from Keller. Okay? Because these are just so bad. Okay, um... Yeah, yeah, okay, here's a good example of subtlety of speech. Here it is, listen, just listen to this. We live in a broken world in which we try to find meaning, acceptance, and healing through material pleasures, careers, entertainment, community, and intimate relationships. Perhaps we even try to find meaning by trying to be a good person. But no matter how hard we try, if we're honest with ourselves, we will admit that we cannot rid ourselves of emptiness. We always seem to suffer under abuse or broken relationships leading to further discontentment. No matter how often we become disillusioned with material things, ideologies and the relationships in which we entrust ourselves, we continue to turn those idols for ultimate satisfaction and happiness, even though they fail us without fail. Our biggest problem is that we're separated from God who made us to be in relationship with him. Okay, I'm putting a link to the article over here. Made us to be in relationship with him. The good news is we can be restored to God, who is the only one that can give our lives meaning. Okay, so stop. I just have to stop. So your biggest problem is that you lack meaning in life. It's not that you're evil. It's not that you're corrupt and sinful. It's that you lack meaning. Your life lacks purpose. Listen, listen to what goes on here. The good news is we can be restored to the God who is the only one who can give our lives meaning. Jesus came to give us life abundant. But to be restored to God, we must turn from self and believe Jesus paid for our sins. That's the only way our emptiness can be replaced with meaning. We need a relationship with God, who is the author of all meaning. We need that relationship because God created us as relational beings. The bad news is if you continue to seek meaning apart from God upon death, you will enter into an eternal darkness void of all meaning and bliss. Is that really what hell is? What's hell? Hell is a lack of meaning and bliss. That's smooth words of fodder. I mean, in a sense, that's true. That's kind of true, isn't it? Listen, it goes on, if you don't seek in this life meaning from God, you'll get your harsh desire forever. You will reap for all eternity more of what you're experiencing now, a meaningless life where self is at the center. Hell will be where you send yourself. Your punishment will be your unquenchable search to find fulfillment in created things apart from God at the center. See, if I heard that as an ombre, I'd be like, I can live with that forever. I can live with that. No problem, sure. I don't mind where myself is at the center. That's not a meaningless life to me. Listen to how it finishes. So I urge you, come to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins so that you can find meaning now and forever. Only through Christ can God heal your brokenness and give your life the true meaning for which you were created and have been searching. Okay, now this guy that wrote the article here, and who is this fella? His name is Ron DiGiacomo. Ron DiGiacomo. He says in response to this, the problem isn't that the word sin is utterly absent from the contemporary gospel presentation. Rather, sin is so ill-defined that the theology of the cross loses its context, and by that, its relevance. If our greatest need may be motivated by a self-absorbed desire for meaning, then Christ crucified for sinners isn't being offered. Amen. He's exactly right. Oh, good grief. You have to wonder, what does the cross even do? How does the cross give you meaning in that system? In that goofy presentation? Okay, now listen to some of the quotes from Keller here. Okay, you gotta hear some of these. Alright, so here's some quotations from Keller. If you try to convict them of guilt for sexual lust, They will simply say, you have your standards and I have mine. Therefore, this approach, that is, I use the biblical definition of sin as idolatry. That puts the emphasis not as much on doing bad things, but on making good things into ultimate things. Tim Keller. And the author here is exactly correct in what he says. He says, Tim Keller has it backwards. One can be saved without understanding that sin is idolatry, but nobody can be saved without a self-awareness of doing bad things. See, Keller is assiduously trying to avoid telling people, you are bad. You're bad people and you do evil things because you are evil. How can anyone read Jeremiah or read Isaiah or read any of the prophets or read the Bible and miss that? People have to get that point. Incredible. Listen, okay, another quotation from Keller, quote, Instead of telling them they are sinning because they're sleeping with their girlfriends or boyfriends, I tell them that they are sinning because they're looking to their romances to give their lives meaning. To justify and save them. To give them what they should be looking for from God. That is appallingly bad. If someone is engaged in fornication, what does the scripture say? Okay, what does scripture say about fornication in Colossians chapter three? Okay, let's look at Colossians three. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. So Keller doesn't want to tell them they're sinning or that they're invoking God's wrath by doing these things that are evil. You're robbing yourself of meaning. It's totally narcissistic. It's turning what's supposed to be for the glory of God into something that's utterly self-centered. Why does God save us? So that my life has meaning? I mean, come on! Would you say that to one of those poor Christian people that was turned into a human torch in Nero's garden? Hey, are you living a meaningful life now? Now that you're not finding your meaning in your life in sex, in idolatry, now your life is really meaningful! I mean, that's just absurd! Sorry, I can't help it. Another Keller quote. This idolatry leads to anxiety, obsessiveness, envy, and resentment. Yeah, those are all things in us. The thing that we need to recognize is our sin is offensive to God. The problem is not that it offends me. Well, I'm anxious because I sin, and I'm obsessive and envious and resentment, and I have resentment in me. It's God is offended. And God is angry, and he stays angry for eternity to those who die in their sins outside of Christ. Well, that's just not very cool, and that's not very popular. I know, I know, and it never will be until God brings a great revival. But this stuff is not gonna bring it. Keller says, quote, I have found that when you describe their lives in terms of idolatry, postmodern people do not give much resistance. Exactly, because it's totally self-focused. You need to talk about sin, not primarily in terms of idolatry, but in terms of its offense against the holy God. Now listen to this last quote, this is terrible. Keller says, quote, then Christ and his salvation can be presented, not at this point so much as their only hope for forgiveness, but as their only hope for freedom. Yeah, make it totally self-centered for them. And then he says, this is my gospel for the uncircumcised. People need to know that their only hope of being forgiven for all the evil, wicked, bad things that they do, because they are evil, wicked, and bad, just as we all are. We all fall short of God's glory and are justified freely by His grace. People need to know that first, or none of this stuff has a context in which it can make any true biblical sense. That article just boiled my blood, it's so bad. That's a great example of subtleties of speech, because there's a lot of biblical ideas that are woven in there, but it's false teaching. The primary thing we're asking people to repent of is their own sin against the Holy God. They need to be reconciled to God or God's going to send them to hell forever. It's not, you're, you're missing out on having a meaningful life. Now, now are they in a sense? Yeah, sure. But is that, is that the way the apostles preached the gospel? Is you having a meaningful life? The gospel? No. It's a classic example of preaching some of the results of conversion, some of the results of the gospel as if they are the gospel. And they're not. They're not, you know, Peter Lightheart does that in his goofy book against Christianity. He preaches the, the effects of Christianity, the effects of the gospel as if they are the gospel. Table fellowship with Gentiles and Jews, you know, that that's, that is justification to him. It's like, no, that's a fruit of justification. That's not what it is. It's a fruit of it. Okay, let's press on here. I want to get through these passages. I want to do this as an introduction to the game we're going to play about making false doctrines sound smooth. But let's just try to finish up 2 Peter 2 here. This is the longest of the passages that we're going to look at, 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 is really probably the most detailed description of false teachers in the whole Bible. I mean, it's very detailed. Okay. Okay, so righteous lot, his soul was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked and it says in verse 8, for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. Now listen to this. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring every violent accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts, made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand. and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he was rebuked for his iniquity. A dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet." These false teachers, listen, the ones that bring in secret destructive heresies into churches that you will encounter in your life. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. And it goes on from there. Now, there's a little bit more there, but we need to, I would like to get to the next passages here. But you hear the, I mean, the depravity of false teachers. I mean, and these can be people that outwardly seem like they're good people, like they're godly Christian people. And I think it's very important that we recognize we have to submit everything and everybody to the tests of God's word. Now, 2 Corinthians. 11, 13 and following, speaking about those who come and preach another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. there in the earlier part of 2 Corinthians 11 verse 4, for if he who comes preaches another Jesus, that means that there are other Jesuses who are not the true Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit, which you have not received, or a different gospel, which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. Paul's criticizing them, saying, you guys are so undiscerning, you might put up with someone who comes and preaches a false gospel to you. And that's a serious charge to make against a church. You guys are so lacking in discernment that you might put up with a false gospel. If someone comes and preached a different Jesus to you, you guys might believe it. Of course, today, if Paul said something like that to a church, he would be disinvited and blacklisted and never invited back, ever. Okay, verse 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Verse 15, here's a verse for the ages. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers, if Satan's ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. So really, so there are ministers, ordained men, who are ministers of Satan? Yes. and they sometimes will arise in churches, denominations? Yes. How do we know if they're bad guys or good guys? What they teach. Do they teach the truth? And we know from the fruit, the fruit that they bear. Do they bear discord, division? I mean, some people, that's like, that's all they've ever done in modern history is divide. because of the way they teach, and the way that they redefine and contradict themselves, and the way that they put things, their weird expressions and stuff, and they've got people that defend them, and people that are against them, and they divide people. Romans 16, 17 says, note those who cause dissensions. Note those who cause divisions. Contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. Censor them and avoid them. Now, you guys have heard, I've done, you know, video after video after video after some of these people who have caused all these divisions among good people, which is very sad to see, but it happens. Satan's ministers masquerade as ministers of righteousness. They pretend to be ministers of Christ, ministers of the gospel. And I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'll say it till I die, the most dangerous people in the world are always ordained men, ordained ministers of the gospel. Another text of scripture that's very important. You know, I was thinking about people that contradict themselves a lot. N.T. Wright is one of those. Doug Wilson is another one. Pope John Paul II. Some of you, I'm sure, are old enough to remember him. Two popes ago. His pontificate was 26 years, I believe. It was 26 years. And Pope John Paul II contradicted himself all the time. He would write an encyclical, and it would be, you know, based on redaction, criticism of the Gospels, and liberal theories of this, that, and the other thing. And he'd throw that out there, and all the progressives and all the liberals and Catholicism would drool, hey, he's one of us, he's one of us. And then shortly after that, he'd throw out another encyclical to the conservatives, and it would sound very traditional and very, like, he's a real conservative. And then the conservatives would be all happy about it and everything. And then he'd throw out another encyclical, and it would be progressive and liberal, and then he'd throw out another one. And then he did his famous prayer summit in Assisi, and I think that was in 1986, where Pope John Paul II, the supposed vicar of Christ on earth, had a prayer meeting, a prayer summit in France with his cardinals, with him, and Islamic clerics prayed, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Hindus, voodoo priests, and pagan cult leaders, American witch doctors, all took turns praying. Can you imagine Paul doing something like that? Today we're gonna pray for peace, for world peace, with the Judaizers and the Gnostics. And it's like, wow, people contradict themselves. And we're told to watch out for it. First Timothy 6, 20. Oh, Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. When people contradict themselves a lot, depending on who they're sitting by, who they're trying to be accepted with, that's a dead giveaway. Because contradictions, if you affirm contradictions, that is to engage in lying. Okay, there's some stuff over here. Let me see what people are saying over here. The problem isn't a lack of meaning. You'd think Keller would know this from Romans and Hebrews. Yeah. Amen. Many in America are falling in love with Thomas Aquinas. The Bible is not enough. Yeah. Aquinas is not somebody that we should be reading or following because he didn't believe in Sola Scriptura. and his theology is very bad. It's always surprised me that the Ligonier guys have seemed to like him. Tomism and the adoption of Aristotelian categories is definitely an issue. That's good, I'm glad that you have seen that that's not where we should go. Why has Michael Horton interviewed Keller about his cancer and not warn people about his serious errors? I don't know. Yeah, I saw, I listened to the interview that Horton did with Lightheart They weren't like chumming or whatever, but he definitely said he disagreed with Lightheart. But why would you even have someone like Lightheart on there? Lightheart is a glowing heretic. He is a heretic. Because when you teach that justification and sanctification are the same thing, you're not a Christian, you're not a preacher of the gospel. It's plain and simple. Okay. Oh, there's there's my brother. There's Richard Moore. Hey, sir. You don't have to get here on time. It's all right It's all archived and all that stuff. So don't worry about okay one more one more passage and And eventually I am gonna get to some of the stuff that people have sent me About making heresy Orthodox. That's gonna be fun Okay, Acts 20 28. This is such an important passage Acts 20 verses 28 to 30 great passage important passage key passage Therefore, here's Paul talking to the Ephesian elders, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And that has happened in every decade. Every decade in church history, from the time of the apostles all the way down to today, savage wolves come in and they don't spare the flock, they don't care about the sheep, and they will spread their false teaching no matter what the human cost. Because they don't serve the Lord Christ, they serve their own appetites, their own belly, their own agenda, whatever it might be. And also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Isn't that incredible? Isn't that incredible? Why do these guys do this? Pride and arrogance. They want followers. They want disciples to follow them. So they'll stand up, we have new insights, we have new insights. You know, I remember all the stuff I've read from the Federal Vision, all that garbage from 2002 all the way down to today. And it's, we're breaking out new truth from the Word of God. And you listen to the original lectures, and read the books, and read the Federal Vision books, you know, book that Dwayne Gardner's editing of all those essays, and the Auburn Avenue Theology pros and cons, the Knox Seminary Colloquium. Very thankfully, I'm very thankful to God. I've done a lot of studying in historical theology, and I've studied the history of the Synod of Dort, and I've really tried to work hard to understand the history of theology and Christian thought. Everything the Federal Vision men said, everything they said, was old heresy. All of it. I remember reading their essays, and this is new truth, new truth, this is the objectivity of the covenant. It's like, that's not new. That's not new at all. The idea that grace is objective, not subjective, it's Pelagian to the core. That's Pelagianism. This, well, we don't believe in, there's no visible, invisible church distinction, and there's different, but there's different kinds of election. The Senate of Dort brought that up. The Armenians said the same thing. They said the exact same thing. And I wish people would read the Senate of Dort and recognize, man, so much of what the federal vision said has already been said, and it's already been addressed by the church. Their denial of the covenant of works. And then, no, no, no, we don't deny it. We just believe it was entirely gracious, and everything Adam had before the fall, he would have had by grace through faith. Why? Why does Adam need grace before he even sins? The Helm of Sabrakel pointed out, if you make an error there, if you don't understand that the covenant of works is a covenant of works, not a covenant of grace, you are going to discard the act of obedience of Christ. And you know what? That's what they did. In the joint federal vision statement, they said, we deny that faithful preaching of the gospel entails any doctrine of the imputation of the act of obedience of Christ. They said that. In fact, let me find the document. I'm going to read it to you in their own words. Joint Federal Vision Statement. Because they are wrong on the covenant of works. Because they don't get that doctrine right. Because they think it's a gracious covenant. What Vilhelmus of Brackel said 300 years ago. What he said 300 years ago turns out to be exactly correct. Listen to this. There are also important areas of disagreement or ongoing discussion among those who are identified as federal vision advocates. Some of these, let me put this over here so people can see it, listen, who are identified as federal vision advocates. Some of these areas would include, but not be limited to, whether or not the imputation of the active obedience of Christ is to be affirmed in its classic form. That is shocking to me. They think that that's not a big deal? That's just an intramural discussion. The act of obedience of Christ? Listen to this. Under the section, Union with Christ and Imputation, we deny that faithfulness to the gospel message requires any particular doctrinal formulation of the imputation of the act of obedience of Christ. What matters is that we confess that our salvation is all of Christ and not from us. And the Roman Catholic Church would stand up and say, amen, preach it guys, you're with us. Our salvation is all of Christ and not of us. We don't need any particular understanding of the imputation of the act of obedience of Christ. I'll tell you what, that lights a fire in my heart. Those are fighting words right there. What an insult to Jesus Christ and what he did. You know, the last talk in the Machen Conference was by Sinclair Ferguson, and it was outstanding. Sinclair Ferguson did a whole lecture on J. Gresham Machen's final telegram that he sent someone. That final telegram, he says, I'm so thankful. He sent this telegram to John Murray. I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. Stop. No hope without it. And Ferguson did a wonderful lecture on the active obedience of Jesus Christ. Why we need the active obedience of Christ to the Ten Commandments. Christ enters into that broken covenant of works and keeps it vicariously for us. And that righteousness is the very righteousness of God by which we are justified before God on the day of judgment. Without the active obedience of Christ, nobody's going to heaven. That just angers me. We deny that faithfulness to the gospel message requires any particular doctrinal formulation of the, quote, imputation of the act of obedience of Christ, end quote. That's heretical. If you don't understand, you need Christ's righteousness. The Bible says you're ignorant and you're lost. Listen to it. Romans 10, verse three. Romans 10, verse three. Listen to the word of God over against these heretics. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, being ignorant of their need for the imputation of the act of obedience of Christ, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. We deny that faithfully preaching the gospel, that you need the imputed obedience of the act of obedience of Jesus Christ. Really? That's what the scriptures teach us. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. The gift righteousness. The imputed righteousness. The active obedience of Christ. The obedience of Jesus, Romans 5, 12 and 19. How many times can one passage say it? By the obedience of the one man, many shall be made righteous. By the obedience of the one, by the obedience of the one. We don't need the obedience of Christ. We deny that the gospel entails any act of obedience of Christ. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. Why? Because they think saving faith is obedience to God. They think that to have a trusting faith, that means works, that means obedience. Subtlety of speech. Smooth words of flattery. Smooth words of flattery. The cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. That's what these people are all about. In church, y'all have got to have discernment filters that can catch this stuff. You've got to understand this. You've got to get it. You've got to get it. There's only one righteousness. There's only one Active obedience that can meet the requirements of the holiness of God and that is the active obedience that was achieved and performed by Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ alone and anyone who thinks You can be faithful to the gospel and not get that Is that person even a Christian? probably not And whose names are on this document? John Barich, Randy Booth, Tim Gallant, Mark Horne, Jim Jordan, Rich Lust, Jeff Myers, Ralph Smith, Steve Wilkins, Peter Lightheart, and Doug Wilson. Yeah, you can be faithful to the gospel. You can be faithful to the gospel without any particular doctrinal formulation of the imputation of the act of obedience of Christ. Why do they get that wrong? Why do they get that wrong? Because their covenant of works is in error. If they even have one. Many of them don't even see one at all. But they think it's a gracious covenant. There's nothing gracious about it. Adam had to obey. And if he didn't, he was damned. He was lost. He would die. He would surely die. That's what Christ had to step in and do. The covenant of grace is Jesus entering into that broken covenant and achieving it for us. To give us his righteousness as a gift. Romans 5, 17. Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Subtleties of speech. Subtleties of speech. Ugh. Horrible stuff. So, I appreciate all the emails from everybody. Man, we're already almost at an hour. Hang on a minute, there's a little bit more to Acts 20 verse 30. Yeah, I know, we did get through it. Okay, yeah. They will draw away disciples after themselves. That's the motive. They want disciples. They want people to look at them. They want people to think that they're all that. It's never about preaching Christ. It's never about putting Him up on a billboard. It's never about His glory. It's about me and my personality cult and how many views I get or how many subscribers, how many conferences I'm invited to speak at or anything like that. It's ridiculous. You know, when it comes to preaching God's Word, When it comes to being a minister of the gospel, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5, Paul says, Pastors, preachers, any of you listen to this, you're not there in the pulpit to tell the people all about yourself. You're not interesting enough to talk about. A personal anecdote here and there, yeah, I get it. A personal struggle occasionally, you've done, you know, very judiciously, just a little bit occasionally. I get that. But you're there to deliver someone else's message, God's message from his word. And to get that right, to make it clear. Now, I realize if you stand up there and do personal stories and anecdotes and jokes and stuff, you'll have a bigger church. But you do that at the expense of coming under the judgment of God. And that's not what we want to do. 2 Corinthians 4-5, we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. Okay, so next time, and I'm gonna try to get to this before next Thursday, I'd like to do some of the quotes that y'all have sent me of heresy and show you how you can do smooth words of flattery, how easy it is to make heresy orthodox. And I also was talking to two brothers at lunch today. We get together about every other Wednesday myself, and we've had as many as five or six get together, and it's great. We bring our Westminster Confessions, and we read through it and talk about it. We eat pizza. And I was with two of my brothers today, and we were talking about evangelism and what a sanctifying effect evangelism has. And they both said this to me on separate occasions, almost word for word, talking about what a sanctifying effect doing evangelism has on you. So I'm going to try to interview those two guys, Luke and Zach here from church, because they're both wonderful evangelists, great men of God. And I would love for you to hear what they have to say. There are so many great people here. There's so many great people here in our church that are evangelistically minded and who are full of guts and boldness and could get out there and do it. And so I want to try to spread that fire. And I really am hoping to maybe Saturday after the group goes out and does evangelism, I'm going to try to do that myself this Saturday, maybe take a couple of my kids with me. and then interview them about the sanctifying influence that doing evangelism has on us. And when you go out and do what you know you're called by God to do, it does have a sanctifying influence on you for sure. But okay, love you all, it's great to have you all. There's Colin, there's Colin. One of these days, you have to send me a pronunciation key on how to say that last name. I've thought, maybe it's like this, I don't know how to say it. But it's good to hear from you. Say hello to Dane and to Gracie and to all those dear people there too. You're welcome, brother. Yeah, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. I wish every church would return again to the doctrine of false teachers. So many say that they believe false teachers will come from within the church but don't practice it. Yeah, that's right. And it's hard. It's hard stuff. It's very hard. Olenichek. Olenichek. Did I get that right? Is that right? Olenichek? Colin Olenichek. Is that right? You got to answer me, man. All right. I'll work on it. I'll work on it. All right. Love y'all. Thanks for watching or for listening. This is Pastor Patrick Hines of Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. You can visit us on the web at bridwellheightschurch.com, where all the sermons and podcasts are put into our sermon audio feed, which is accessible in iTunes as well as the podcast app. You are welcome to join us any Sunday morning for Sunday school for all ages at 10 a.m. and then worship for everyone at 11 a.m. If you ever have any questions about the Christian faith or the Bible, you can email me at pastor at bridalheightschurch.org. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.