Discerning a false teacher/leader

I John 4:1-3a (Message)

My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.  Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God.

False teachers, preachers, and prophets have plagued the world since the beginning of mankind.  What is the first commandment of the Ten Commandments?  “You have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).  False teaching of false gods must have been rampant when God gave this first commandment to Moses.  False witnesses are mentioned in Psalm 27:12 and 35:11.  Jeremiah 23 and Zechariah 5 write against false teachers.  Jesus warned against false prophets in Matthew 7:15.  Peter wrote in II Peter 2:1 “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”.  False teaching, preaching and prophesy have plagued the people of Israel and the Christian church and continues to be a huge problem today.  

Indeed, false teachers, preachers, prophets……let’s call them false leaders……are very deceptive.  They are wolves in sheep’s clothing as Jesus warned in Matthew 7:15.  They talk the language, act very charismatic, show charm and kindness, do whatever it takes to earn your trust by such seductive words and actions, then snare you like an animal in a trap.  False leaders almost always have two things in common----they love money (greed) and sex (sexual immorality). Their focus is on themselves not the Lord.  Their teaching is not consistent with what is taught in the Bible or distorts what the Bible teaches.  Yet their distortions can be very subtle.  Like Jesus said, they can be like wolves in sheep’s clothing and easily fool gullible people

The apostle John gives Christian brothers and sisters (“My dear friends” or “Beloved”) sound advice for how you can tell whether a pastor, teacher, or other person claiming to be a Christian leader is authentic or not.  John first writes that you must not believe everything you hear.  That statement alone strongly affirms that there is a lot of false teaching going on so do not blindly believe everything you hear from someone.  If you have been raised by good parents, you tend to believe authority figures because your parents were trustworthy.  However, you soon realize that many/most authority figures are not like your parents.

John then writes that you must not assume that someone who is talking about God actually comes from God.  What he means here is that false teachers/leaders are not sent by God, they are not God’s spokespeople; in fact, they are evil.  John bluntly writes that there are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.  It saddens me greatly to think that there are people falsely preaching about God, lying to people about who God is and what He does.  You have to be on the alert for any preacher who does not use Scripture to back up what he preaches about.  What is more difficult is to discern when a preacher is using Scripture, but is distorting the true meaning of that Scripture. 

John gives us the primary key, the main tool, the best way to discern whether a preacher or teacher in the church comes from God and belongs to God.  What does that person believe about Jesus Christ?  Who is He?  Is there open confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?  Is there open confession that one’s faith is in Jesus Christ?  Does that person believe that Jesus came to earth as a human being, but is also the Son of God?  Ask these questions and how a person answers will tell you whether he/she is a true believer and represents God in their preaching/ teaching or is a false leader/ teacher/preacher/prophet.  If there is any hesitation about who Jesus is, if there is any denial in the historical person of Jesus Christ, that person is a liar and you must not follow him/her.

Not only how a person answers the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?” helps you discern whether or not that person is from God and a true or false teacher, how you answer this question also enables you to know for sure that you are saved in Christ and a true follower of Him.   How do you confess?

Create in me a clean heart

Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV)

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  

Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed his moral failures on February 21, 1988 on his own television show that subsequently was shown on news programs throughout the world.  While perhaps millions witnessed his confession, few would know that his words of confession came from Psalm 51:1-4.  This was the same psalm that David wrote to confess his sin after committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering her husband, Uriah.  After admitting his sin, David prayed for forgiveness and restoration in verses 7-12.  In Psalm 51:10-12 David made six requests as part of his desire to be restored to a right relationship with God:

·  Create in me a pure heart

·  Renew a steadfast spirit within me

·  Do not cast me from your presence

·  Do not take your Holy Spirit from me

·  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

·  Sustain in me a willing spirit  

God is a creator God.  David asks God to create--to begin anew--a pure heart.  His sin of adultery started with thoughts that entered his mind and heart and so he must be cleansed from the inside first.  Proverbs 23:7 famously states, “As he thinks from within himself, so he is”.  If the inside is clean and pure, the outside will be too.  Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their uncleanness from within. 

If the inside is pure and clean, then a steadfast spirit can be renewed.  To be steadfast is to be on guard against the desire to sin again.  Then David prays that God does not do two things that David knows he deserves.  Please God, do not leave me and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.  Charles Spurgeon describes this verse as “the cry of a penitent child of God”.  It shows a soul that loves God’s presence.  And then David prayed that the joy of his salvation be restored.  It is very important to note that David did not pray for salvation that he lost; he did not lose his salvation.  But, he prayed about the joy of salvation lost.  This is a key learning point.  Sin will not cause you to lose your salvation, but it will cause you to question your assurance of salvation and without that assurance you have no joy and peace of mind.

The last request of these verses was to be given a willing spirit that will sustain David.  What this means is that David needed God’s spirit to enable him to do what God desired him to do even though he will struggle at times.  The spirit of God will sustain David through those times of struggle. 

What David prayed for here is what you can pray for when you know that you have sinned against the Lord and need to change, need to repent, need to turn the other way, need God’s loving and merciful help to give you another chance.  Do you need to pray like this?  Is your conscience telling you that it’s time to change your ways?  Use this prayer as your model and God will grant His love and mercy to you just as He did to David, but He must see in you a sincere desire to change.   

Who encourages you?

I Thessalonians 3:7-8 (NLT)

So we have been greatly encouraged in the midst of our troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith.  It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord.

You are dealing with a myriad of problems in your life.  Family problems, work problems, money problems, health issues, conflicts with others, whatever, you have lots of problems going on.  How do you cope?  I have never understood how a non-believer can make it through life’s great difficulties without the Lord’s involvement.  A believer has the Bible and prayer to help you deal with your stress points, worries, and depression.  Yet, there’s something more.

The apostle Paul admits that he and his colleagues are in the midst of “troubles and suffering”.  You can read in Acts 17:1-15 that a riot broke out while Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica and they barely escaped with their lives.  They went to a nearly city, Berea, but their opponents from Thessalonica followed them there and stirred up the crowds such that they had to flee again, this time to Athens.  It was from Athens that Paul wrote this letter to Thessalonian believers.

What gave Paul great encouragement, even under life-threatening circumstances, was the reminders in his mind of the strong faith of his believing brothers and sisters in Thessalonica.  Others’ faith made the difference in his life.  Have others’ faith made a difference in your life?  When you are experiencing great troubles over the problems you are facing, does not the strong faith of someone else encourage you?  Does not the thinking of someone you know who has demonstrated strong faith give you hope and encouragement?  Better yet, doesn’t the personal interactions you might have with someone whom you admire because of his/her faith significantly help you deal with your problems with a little more optimism?

Read II Corinthians 1:3-11.  Note that not only God comforts you through His Word and prayer during times of affliction, but also, just as importantly, comfort comes through other people who have gone through what you are going through.  We see the strong faith in others, faith that was developed and strengthened in their lives because of the suffering they had gone through.  Now they are able to help you because of their faith and wisdom. 

Who in your life encourages you because of his/her strong faith?  Who do you know who has faced similar problems in life as you are facing who you can turn to for encouragement and guidance?  Furthermore, who might you be able to help, either now or someday, because you have remained strong in the faith?

Boldness to obey God rather than men

Acts 5:29 (NASB)

“We must obey God rather than men”

This statement by Peter and the other apostles is the supreme example of boldness. When the Scripture says to be bold (the best verse, in my opinion, is Philippians 1:20), boldness almost always means practicing this verse.  No question that it takes great courage to go against the secular crowd and follow the ways of God. 

Examples:

·  Standing firm in your faith when others ridicule you for such faith. 

·  Defending your church when others complain about it

·  Asking someone if he/she believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior when you don’t know what the reaction/response will be

·  In private, telling a friend that he/she is sinning realizing that your bold honesty might ruin that friendship.

·  Refusing to do something that would violate your conscience while everyone else is doing it and ridiculing you for not doing, e.g. drinking, taking drugs, having sex, going to a perverted movie or play, stealing, lying, all kinds of situations like these

One of my favorite movies is “Chariots of Fire” that won the Oscar for best picture in 1981.  One of the heroes of the true story is the Scottish sprinter, Eric Liddell, who refused to run in a qualifying 100 meter heat at the 1924 Paris Olympics because it was to be held on a Sunday.  Despite enormous pressure from the Prince of Wales and the British Olympic Committee, he held his position because of his Christian conviction that to run on Sunday would be a failure to honor the Sabbath.  While everyone disagreed with his position, they also privately held admiration for his boldness.

Think about your boldness.  Are you bold at all about your faith or are you afraid of what others will think (Proverbs 29:25)?  Are you more concerned about what people will think of you than what God thinks of you?  Are others well aware of your priorities, faith and obedience to the Lord (without being unduly pious or overbearing)?  And, are you so bold about your faith in the Lord that you would be willing to die rather than renounce it?  That is a question that you’ll never know the answer unless/until it actually happens.  Yet, it’s a question that hypothetically causes you to think how obedient and how bold you are in your Christian faith.     

“You are only as strong as your purpose, therefore let us choose reasons to act that are big, bold, righteous and eternal”. — Barry Munro

“The righteous are bold as a lion” –- Proverbs 28:1b