Method of Warning Against False Teaching

Introduction: Re-examining Jesus' Warning to His Disciples

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 16th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Let us turn again this morning to the passage that we have meditated upon for two Lord's Day mornings, and once again we'll look to this passage and to the God who gave it to us, trusting him for light and understanding. I refer to Mark's Gospel and chapter 8, verses 11 through 21. Mark's Gospel, chapter 8, verses 11 through 21. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, trying or tempting, and he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them, and again entering into the boat, departed to the other side.

1:30 And they forgot to take bread, and they had not in the boat with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned one with another, saying, We have no bread. And Jesus, perceiving it, saith unto them, Why do you reason because you have no bread?

2:02 Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Have you your heart? Have you your heart hardened? Having eyes do you see not, and having ears do you hear not?

2:17 And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of the broken pieces did you take up? And they say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among the four thousand, how many basketfuls?

2:39 How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they say unto him, Seven. And he said unto them, Do you not yet understand? And then reading from Mark 16 and verse 12, Mark's conclusion of this same incident, Mark 16 and verse 12, Then understood they, that you have not yet understood, Then understood they, that you have not yet understood, Then understood they, that you have not yet understood, Then understood they, that you have not yet understood, that you have not yet understood, not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

3:26 Now the two paragraphs read in your hearing from Mark's Gospel, obviously sustain an organic, or a living relationship to each other. In verses 11 through 13 of Mark 8, We have the record of the aggressive approach of the Pharisees who, according to Matthew 16.1, were accompanied by the Sadducees on this occasion. And it was an approach in which they sought to pick a bone with Jesus and to press him into performing a miraculous sign somewhere in the heavens.

4:10 Jesus flatly refused to concede to their demands and abruptly departs in a boat with his disciples from the western to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Having left in a hurry, the disciples forgot to lay up and take with them an adequate supply of their little bread cakes, their little loaves, their little chapattis, which were the common snacks. Stable food at that time. Now, as they arrived at the other side, Jesus broke out in a very solemn warning to the disciples.

4:53 The warning of Mark 8 and verse 15, which forms the focal point and the organizing principle of that entire paragraph. He warned them in a very solemn way that Mark calls a child. Charging them to take heed, to pay attention, and to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Then we see in verse 16 the record of the very superficial understanding of this warning of the Lord Jesus on the part of the disciples.

5:35 Our Lord being aware of their superficial understanding. By a. Probing questions both rebukes. And then graciously and lovingly brings the disciples to understand.

5:52 That the true meaning of his warning had nothing whatsoever to do with physical bread cakes. But rather, as we read in Matthew 16, 12. He was warning them to be on their guard against the teaching. of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Review of Five Vital Lessons from the Passage

6:17 Now, after opening up the passage last Lord's Day morning, in the time that remained, I sought to focus upon five vital lessons contained in the passage, five observations drawn from the text. They were these. This passage underscores a universal principle, and the principle is this, that the reality and quality of one's religious experience is determined by the substance of one's religious beliefs. Jesus was anxious that they would not imbibe the beliefs of the scribes and the Pharisees and of Herod, because Jesus recognized this universal principle, universal principle, that religious experience is determined by the substance of religious belief. The second observation we made on the passage was that this passage contains a frightening assumption, and the frightening assumption is this, that the most favorable circumstances in which to know and absorb the truth do not negate the possibility of the information, the influence of error.

7:39 There could be no more favorable context for knowing and absorbing truth than the immediate presence of truth incarnate. They are with Jesus, who is the truth, and yet being with Jesus, Jesus warns them solemnly, seriously commands and charges them, be alert, be awake, be on your guard, against the subtle influence of the teaching of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. The third observation we made was that the passage commands a perpetual duty. There are two present imperatives, be taking heed continually and be continually on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, and according to Matthew's parallel passage, the leaven of the Sadducees. And that perpetual duty is that the people of God are to be discerning with respect to their ability to identify and recognize religious error, and secondly, to be watchful against imbibing religious error. And then the fourth observation we made was that the passage

9:07 illustrates a vital law of the life of faith. They were all concerned about how they would get bread in this relative wilderness place on the eastern shore. And Jesus said, as men of faith, don't you remember, look back to previous circumstances when in your need, I proved my faithfulness and my power, and reason from the past manifestations of my faithfulness, and power to your present circumstances, which need the manifestation of my faithfulness and power. And then the fifth observation we made on the text was this, that the passage demonstrates a comforting truth. And the comforting truth is that Jesus deals faithfully, painfully, and yet lovingly, in bringing his own disciples to the maturity of understanding in the truth of God. And what our Lord did here was to take their crass literalism and their preoccupation with external things, and by these probing questions, bring them to a place of spiritual perception, so that Matthew says at the conclusion of this incident,

10:30 then they understood that he was speaking of the teaching of the scribes, I'm sorry, of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now of necessity, I could only touch briefly upon those five observations, and it was both interesting and encouraging to have differing comments at the door. Some saying that the first or the second observation was particularly helpful to them. Some that the third, fourth, or fifth, and so in giving that sort of buckshot approach on the teaching of the text, apparently, though some did not get the full load, at least one of the pellets hit you in a place of particular need.

Focusing on the Central Lesson: The Perpetual Duty to Beware of False Teaching

11:15 But now what I want to do this morning, and I do this at the urgency of the urging of at least one of my fellow elders, and more so at the urging of my own conscience, is I want to go back with you to what is the central lesson of the passage, one of those five, five observations, and to focus in upon that observation to amplify it more fully, and then to apply it more extensively. And it just happened to be number three, right in the middle of the five observations, and it is the teaching of this passage in which our Lord commands all of his disciples with reference to a perpetual duty. The central issue of this passage is his charge to the disciples, take heed, beware of the leaven, or the teaching of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And it is that duty laid upon the disciples, which is the organizing principle of the passage, and which does, indeed, constitute the major burden of the passage.

12:40 So what we're going to do this morning is something akin to what we find in Genesis chapters one and two. Genesis chapter one gives the broad overview of the six days of creation. Then in Genesis chapter two, God takes the zoom lens and zooms in on the particulars of the creation, of man. Or to change the imagery, I'm doing what the photographer might do, in which he took a picture that encompassed a large landscape, and then there was one particular part of that picture that was particularly significant to him, and so he takes his enlarger and enlarges it, and crops out that particular part, and then sets it forward as a separate entity. Now that's what I'm doing with our third observation upon the text. I am cropping, as it were, that picture, and using the magnifying glass of the word of God, we will attempt to look in greater detail at this tremendously vital principle in which Jesus warns his disciples concerning the errors of the Pharisees, and of Herod, and of the Sadducees,

Jesus' Method of Warning: Specific Identification of Error

14:06 which he likens unto leaven. Now what I want you to do with me is first of all to notice the method by which Jesus warns the disciples of false teaching or religious error. I want you to discover with me the precise method by which Jesus warns the disciples of false teaching and religious error. We had occasion to show that the leading characteristics of these various groups were as follows.

14:46 The Pharisees were the epitome of the error of religious hypocrisy. Luke 12 and verse 1. He warned them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. And in that hypocrisy they were noted, according to Mark chapter 7, by their traditionalism and by their externalism.

15:14 Jesus called them hypocrites in Mark 7 and verse 6. He says that their religion was a vain religion, and it was a religion marked by holding to men's traditions, verse 8, while making void the word of God, and it was a religion, according to verse 14 and following, which was taken up with external issues, but was indifferent to the state of the heart. So when Jesus said in chapter 8 and verse 15 to the disciples, take heed, beware of the leaven, the teaching of the Pharisees, he was warning them against religious hypocrisy, religious externalism, religious traditionalism. And then with the Sadducees, who are found often joined to the Herodians, he was warning against a group of people who were characterized by their rationalism. Though they claimed to believe the Scriptures, they denied, according to the testimony of Scripture, the doctrine of the resurrection, the resurrection of the body. They denied the doctrine of angels or the existence of spirits.

16:38 And Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that the Sadducees even denied the immortality of the soul, that when the body dies, the whole person dies. But from Scripture we know that they were marked by a rationalism that would make man's mind, the measure of reality. And so when they thought they had an airtight case with regard to the resurrection, they were the ones who came to Jesus and tried to show how foolish the doctrine of the resurrection was in terms of that particular woman who had married seven different brothers. But then we also know from Scripture and secular history that they were the people who, for the most part, controlled the priestly class in Israel. So they were marked by a ritualism, an association with temple worship, while still being rationalists of the worst kind. They were sort of the guild of the priest or the priestly union. And when they joined with the Herodians, they became a people who were marked by a kind of religious political expediency.

18:07 And Herod and the followers of Herod were willing to absorb as much of Judaism as was necessary to keep their political position secure. So when Jesus would warn his people against the insidious, leban-like influence of rationalism, of ritualism, of religious pragmatism for political ends, he does so by saying, Beware of the leaven of the Sadducees. Now, notice his method. Our Lord is concerned that the disciples not allow any little influence of the hypocrisy, externalism, or traditionalism of the Pharisees to enter their spiritual bloodstream and there multiply like leaven or yeast and infect the whole. He is concerned that nothing of the rationalism and the ritualism and the pragmatism of the Sadducees enter their spiritual bloodstream. But now when he warns them, how does he do it? Notice what our text says.

19:24 He does not say, Take heed and beware of the influence of hypocrisy, the influence of externalism or traditionalism or rationalism or ritualism or pragmatism. He does not warn them in terms of generic evils. Rather, he warns them in terms of the present, visible, contemporary embodiments of those evils. He warns them of specific discernible classes and groups of people. Do you see that? Beware of the leaven of a specific identifiable entity called the Pharisees, called the Herodians, identified as the Sadducees. Now this was not an isolated incident in the recorded ministry of our Lord.

20:38 Rather, again and again, he warned his disciples about the evil influence of false teachers in concryptions and classifications and unquestionable verbal identifications. For example, in Matthew chapter 23, then spoke Jesus to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, These scribes, a specific group of people, and the Pharisees, a specific group of people, sit on Moses' seat. All things whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe. Insofar as they are expounding Moses, follow them. But do not, do not after their works, for they say and they do not. And then as he goes on to warn about the various areas in which they should be watchful against particular religious sins, he does not warn in the abstract.

21:49 He warns in terms of the concrete manifestations of those sins in those specific people called the scribes and the Pharisees. And then he pronounces the sevenfold woes upon those specific people, saying in essence to his own, I warn you, don't follow these people. And then he turns to those people and says, Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. And then he describes a certain dimension of their religious perversity.

22:27 Then he says, Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. And describes another aspect. What is Jesus doing? He is taking his warnings about false teaching out of the realm of the generic and he's putting it into the flesh and blood of the concrete and the specific.

22:50 Do you see that? Notice how he does it in Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. He does it with regard to Herod in that very hour, verse 31.

23:16 There came certain Pharisees saying to him, Get out and go hence, for Herod would fain kill you. And he said unto them, Go and say to that fox. I mean, you don't ingratiate yourself to the political leader by calling him a fox. Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I am perfected.

23:46 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. He is unafraid to say that in the person of Herod there is a fox-like character that comes to specific expression. And he does the same thing from heaven when he walks amidst his churches to commend them, to rebuke them, to admonish them, to correct them.

The Apostles' Method of Warning: Naming Names and Specific Manifestations

24:19 Where evil has taken concrete expressions in men, women, and movements, the ascended Lord in Revelation 2 and 3 does not warn or call to repentance in terms of generic concepts. He calls and warns with respect to specific manifestations. Chapter 2 of Revelation. The church at Ephesus.

24:49 Verse 6. But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans which also I hate. Whoever these Nicolaitans were, they held certain views that were erroneous. And Jesus said, I hate them, you hate them.

25:08 He did not say, This thou hast, that you hate the works, that, and just describe them in generic abstraction. He described those evil works in the concrete identification of them with the Nicolaitans. He does the same thing in verse 14. His message to the church at Pergamum.

25:33 Verse 14 of chapter 2. I have a few things against you. You have there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast the stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. So you have some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner.

25:58 You see the concreteness of our Lord's exposure of evil thinking and evil practice. He names names which put the thing into the specific and into the concrete. Verse 20 of the same chapter. I have this against you.

26:17 Speaking to the church at Thyatira. You suffer the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and seduces my servants to commit fornication. He didn't say now I have this against you that there is someone somewhere in your region who is teaching things contrary to the standards of morality that I have taught by my word and by my apostles. Jesus doesn't deal in that kind of generality.

26:50 He says you suffer a specific woman. Her name is Jezebel. She calls herself a prophetess and this is what she teaches and I'm telling you to repent of it. Now what is his method?

27:04 The method of Jesus in warning the disciples of false teaching and of religious error is the method of specific identification of the error in its association with specific men women or groups of men and women. Now that's not all the Lord did. He didn't spend his whole life just doing that. There is much recorded positive instruction in which error is driven from the field by the sheer weight beauty and authority of truth. Take the Beatitudes for example. But where necessary and in due proportion Jesus warns of religious error in concrete examples of that error even to the naming of recognizable groups and people. All right?

28:13 Do you see that principle? That's point number one. Point number two this morning is this. The method by which the apostles warn the churches of false teaching and religious error.

28:28 We've seen what Jesus' method was. Beware of the leaven of and he becomes specific. What about the apostles? Well let's look at several examples.

28:39 The apostle Paul in writing to the Galatians a church in which people had been imbibing views of God's salvation that cut at the very heart of the gospel and he says I am amazed verse six of chapter one that you are so quickly removing from him who called you in the grace of Christ into a different gospel which is not a gospel only there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ but though we are an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel than that which we preach unto you let him be accursed of God as we've said before so say I now again if any man preaches unto you any gospel other than that which you received let him be accursed of God. Now here he does not name any specific man but he says whoever the individual may be whatever his credentials may appear to be if he comes and in any way perverts that gospel we gave let him be accursed. Now later on in this very epistle we read of an incident in which a fellow apostle a fellow apostle allowed the leaven the leaven of a Judaizing tendency to affect his practice and what did Paul do?

30:07 Well if you look at chapter 2 verses 11 to 14 you have the answer but when Cephas that is Peter came to Antioch I resisted him to the face because he stood condemned for before that certain came from James he ate with the Gentiles but when they came he drew back and separated himself fearing them that were of the circumcision and the rest of the Jews dissembled likewise with them insomuch that even Barnabas Barnabas son of consolation Barnabas great peacemaker Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation but when I saw that they walked not upright according to the truth of the gospel I said unto Peter before them all and he rebuked an apostle in the presence of all of the others and their signs and there remained unto them all of their signs and their signs and the glory of the Lord and it is said that Paul had about 1,860 apostles about 40 or 50 and the apostles when they were about three hundred and they were about three hundred and one and they were crying about it but when they went they cried saying to God I will redeem you from the sin that is yours I will serve you I will serve you

31:36 not for the good God? Am I striving to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be the bond slave of Jesus Christ. The apostolic method was not simply to deal with error in generic, general, abstract terms, but to deal with error in its concrete expressions, even when it meant naming names, and forever embalming in printer's ink, wherever the Bible goes, the fact that Peter and Barnabas were infected with some of the practical implications of the Judaizers and their teaching. Do you find the same when the apostle writes to the Corinthian church? Some were denying the doctrine of the resurrection, and he says in chapter 15 and verse 12, he said, I hear that there are some among you that deny that Christ is risen from the dead. He was unashamed. He was unashamed to say there are certain ones who at this point ought to squirm when I speak. He gives the same kind of warnings in Philippians 3.2 and 3.19, but he goes even

32:48 further in the pastoral epistles, and again he names names. 1 Timothy chapter 1, this charge, verse 18, I commit unto you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies that led the way to you, that by them you may war. The good warfare, holding faith in a good conscience, which some, having thrust from them, made shipwreck concerning the truth. Then he did not say, and you can call to remember, and some such people don't forget them. No, he didn't deal in generalities. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander? Timothy, every time you think of the words, the names, Hymenaeus, Alexander, Alexander, Hymenaeus, remember my exhortation. If you give up a good conscience and any tenet of the faith, you'll make shipwreck concerning the faith. Hymenaeus, Alexander, that's what's written on the stern of those two lives that are dashed to snithereens upon the rocks of spiritual shipwreck. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 16 to 18.

34:07 And this is not exhaustive. I just want to give you enough to show that this is a vital strand of biblical truth. 2 Timothy 2, verse 16. Shun profane babblings. That's a warning, you see, against religious error. For they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a gangrene or a cancer. And I leave you to observe how this works itself out, Timothy. Now, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some? You can go on

34:57 into chapter 4, verses 14 and 15, and he speaks of Alexander the coppersmith. On into the epistles of John, and he names diatrophies. What's the point of all this? The point of all this, dear people, is simply this, that as with our Lord, so with his apostles, that there is a time and a place in giving warnings about the leavened influence of religious error, when those warnings need to descend out of the generic, that is, the general, and they need to come to a focused expression.

35:40 In movements and men who are the embodiment and the propagators of those errors. Our Lord as a true shepherd adopted this method. The apostles as true shepherds adopted this method, and surely it is the duty of all true shepherds of souls to follow the pattern of their Lord and of the apostles. Believing that truth alone saves, and truth alone sanctifies, believing that error damns and cripples, and believing that error can be subtly introduced and absorbed and work like leaven, God's servants must be willing to warn of religious error in the manner in which Jesus and the apostles warned. of religious error, not as a constant diet to God's people, but in due proportion as the need arises and as an integral part of their pastoral duty. For what's one of the requirements for an

37:00 elder in Titus 1.9? Holding fast the faithful word that he may be able to exhort in the healthy teaching and to convict the gainsayer. And that word convict means so thoroughly and masterfully expose error that error's mouth is shut, its tail is between its legs, and it goes slinking out of the sanctuary, beaten and defeated and under the frown of God's people. Now my Bible says that's my task. And God have mercy on me if I refuse to do it. Now I say again, in due proportion to other tasks, in due proportion to other responsibilities. You see, this is the first time in preaching verse by verse through the gospel of Mark, we've come to a text that says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and of Herod.

38:12 But we haven't. We've come to it. And having come to it, what am I to do with it? Blink, burp, and say, excuse me, I lost my place. Oh, here we are, over here in verse 22.

38:24 No, my friends, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So we've seen the method by which Jesus warned the disciples of religious error and false teaching. He named those who taught the teaching which was false and evil in its influence. We've seen, secondly, that this is the method which the apostles adopted.

Objection 1: You Will Offend People

38:57 Now then, thirdly, what are the most common objections to the use of this method?

39:05 Well, there's no new thing under the sun. The first and most common objection is this. You will offend people if you do. You will offend people if you do this, particularly those whose teaching you condemn in the concrete and in the particular.

39:24 I mean, if you go warning about traditionalism and externalism and hypocrisy and ritualism, and you warn about them in terms of their most vivid, current, concrete manifestations and their most vivid, current, concrete manifestations in man's life, and you warn about them in terms of their most vivid, current, concrete manifestations in man's life, and you warn about them in terms of their most vivid, current, concrete manifestations in man's life, and women and movements, you're going to offend people, particularly the people whom you name. Ever hear that objection? You'll never win them. You'll drive them away.

40:00 Well, isn't it interesting that the disciples had the cheek to come and make that very objection to the Son of God? Yes, they did. You say, oh, come on. Yes, they did.

40:14 Yes, they did. You open your Bible, with me to Matthew 15 Matthew 15 after Jesus had been exposing the hypocrisy the externalism the traditionalism of the Pharisees verse 12 then came the disciples and said unto him do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying Lord you were kind of rough on those fellas I mean you dumped them on the deck without much gentleness Lord do you know you cut them upset when you called them hypocrites when you said their worship is all a bunch of nothing it's vain you got them upset when you then turn to the multitude and expose them before the whole multitude as a bunch of externalists who don't understand the gospel understand the ABCs of true religion that true religion is not something that comes from without but is a matter of the heart Jesus don't you know you got them upset I love the Lord's answer look at it verse 13 but he answered and said

41:39 every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be rooted up let them alone they're blind guides and if they're not they're blind guides and if they're not they're blind guides and if they're not the blind guide the blind both shall fall into a pit my friend listen can you stomach a Jesus who talks that way if not if not your Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible he's not the Jesus who died on the cross he's not the Jesus who takes sinners to heaven if you can't stomach a Jesus who responds to the objection that what he said by making error concrete and exposing it to the face of the errorist and then exposing the errorist in the face of the multitudes if you don't have a Jesus who when told by people who love him and are concerned about him don't you know you've offended them what is his twofold response his twofold response is God will take care of them and send them to hell in due time and leave them alone because anyone that wants to follow their

42:56 leaders and follow them has a heart that loves the darkness and like a blind man who loves the darkness let those blind leaders guide those blind followers and they'll both fall into the ditch there's no hope for them if my scathing piercing pointed unequivocal lightness exposure of error doesn't break their hearts but merely inflames their passions then it's evident that they are given up to blindness and will still be a Kindness, let them be.

43:29 Now, if my Bible says anything, that's what it says. Does your Bible tell you that? Have you got Matthew 15, 12 through 14 in your Bible, my friend? I do.

43:42 You'll offend people. Yes, that's right, you will. Jesus offended people. And when he was reminded that he offended people, he said, So what as if we offend plants that are not plants of my heavenly Father?

44:00 Because he's eventually going to root them up and cast them into the fire? And who cares if their defenders are offended? They're as blind as they are. Let them both fall into the ditch of their willful blindness.

44:19 You see what lies behind this idea. We must not expose error in the concrete. Just give the general principles. Give the positive truth.

44:31 And let the Holy Spirit apply it. You see what? What lies behind that is an attempt to have an offenseless Christ and an offenseless Christianity. And my friend, an offenseless Christ is a Christ who has no power to save.

44:50 An offenseless Christianity is a Christianity not worth propagating. For the Apostle Paul, in dealing with the Judaizers, says if we yield to their tenets of their convictions and their beliefs, then is the offense of the cross ceased. Implied in that is, once you've stripped the cross of its offensiveness, you've stripped it of its power. And if the cross is stripped of its power, what hope is there for sinners?

45:24 What hope is there for sinners? If it is wrong, if it is wrong to warn God's people about religious errors that do not come like a tank thundering out of the air, and blasting and leveling everything before it, but work like a little bit of leaven just dropped into a corner of a little pile of meal. If it's right that Jesus should warn of evil teaching in the concrete and in the specific, even to the point of causing offense to those exposed and those sympathetic to them, then, dear people, unless we're prepared to indict, Jesus Christ as being wrong and sit in judgment on the perfect, holy, harmless, guileless Son of God, we better cry that God will purge from us all of this worldly notion that it is wrong to offend people by exposing their religious errors by name.

Objection 2: You Are Not Acting in a Loving Manner

46:34 But then there's a second objection. Not only you're going to offend people, drive them away, second objection is you're not acting in a loving manner to these people.

46:49 Now, granted, there may be an unloving, carnal manner of exposing error and those who teach it and those groups and individuals who propagate it. It may be possible for any man, any woman to fall under the spirit of the disciples who, when the Samaritans would not receive them, were ready, Elijah-like, to call down fire out of heaven and have the Lord rebuke them. I do not deny that it's possible for any man or woman to denounce error specifically and concretely in a manner contrary to the Spirit of Christ.

47:33 But putting aside that very real possibility, what lies at the root of this objection is really a false notion that God loves all men with a love of delight and complacency regardless of their religious beliefs. When people say to do what Jesus did, warn people of specific errors in the concrete identification of those errors with men in movements and people, you're not acting in love. Behind that is this false, unbiblical notion that God has allowed, a love and delight of complacency with all men, toward all men, regardless of what they believe. You see, in our day, the great creed is none must be discriminated against on the basis of sex, race, color, creed.

48:39 You show yourself to be the perfect humanitarian when you can manifest perfect equanimity of attitude and disposition to men regardless of sex, race, color, or creed. Now let me say, if you can't pass the test at the first three, you've got some sin to deal with. If you are automatically indisposed to recognize the dignity of a fellow human being, male or female, black, white, yellow, green, orange, or any color, a spectrum that yet exists or that yet may be developed,

49:22 if you cannot love a fellow image-bearer, saint or sinner, with that love that it is your duty to manifest to him regardless of sex, race, color, then you have sin that needs to be dealt with. But when it comes to creed, to be like God is to love those who love his truth and to hate those who love him. Those who hate his truth with perfect hatred. Do not I hate them that hate thee, O Lord, with perfect hatred?

50:02 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. God is angry with the wicked every day. He will be in flaming fire to take vengeance on them who love and believe and propagate a lie. The prophets are full of this.

50:25 I give you but one specimen out of Jeremiah chapter 14.

50:32 God does not love all men with a love of delight and complacency regardless of their creed. He loves all men as his creatures made in his image regardless of how deeply they may have steeped themselves in sin. He loves his own elect from eternity with a distinction, distinguishing particular redemptive love even though they lie under his wrath until they are effectually called. But this notion that he delights and has a love of complacency and acceptance of all men regardless of what they believe is not substantiated by the Bible.

51:16 In Jeremiah 14 we read these words, verse 10, Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Even so they have loved to one another, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord does not accept them. Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins. And the Lord said unto me, Don't pray for this people for their good. When they fast I will not hear their cry, and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering I will not accept them.

51:49 I'll consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. Then said, I, our Lord God, behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine. God loves everybody,

52:09 even in people. You won't see the sword of judgment. God is love. That's what the false prophets said.

52:19 Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither did I speak unto them. They prophesy unto you a lying vision and divination, a thing of their own heart. Therefore saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not.

52:41 Yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall these prophets be consumed, and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they shall have none to bury them. Them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness upon them. Now my friends, that's the God of the Bible.

53:15 I say that's the God of the Bible.

53:19 That's the God with whom you have to do, with whom I have to do. The God who says when the prophets come along to ancient Israel and say, You're God's covenant people. God loves you all with a love of benevolence regardless of what you believe, regardless. That's how you act.

53:37 Jeremiah was saying, No, it's only in covenant faithfulness, in trust and love and obedience to God's law in the terms of the covenant that you can claim the blessings of covenant love and favor. And the false prophet says, Don't believe that old troublemaker. Everything's going to be all right. God loves you all and has a wonderful plan for your life.

54:01 Everything's going to turn out all right. God is love. Pure love. You need not be concerned about the lies of the false prophets.

54:14 That's the objection people give. You're not acting in love when you warn people about the leaven that comes to expression in Romanism. When you warn them about the deceptiveness of the Pope and of papal religion. Warn them of the deceptiveness of the Bob Schillers and their salvation of your own religion.

54:38 And they say, That's not loving. That's not kind. That's not being like God. I say, It is being like God.

54:49 But not like the God made by the average man in the street, but by the God revealed in Holy Scripture.

55:01 My heart wept as I saw the bill of goods sold again to the masses, the black people of our country.

55:15 Whatever good God may have done in common with us, whatever good God may have done in grace through Martin Luther King and thank God for all the good that was done.

55:24 To see that man stand and take Bible verses that apply to redemption in Christ and say, I have a dream. I've been to the mountain. I've seen the promised land. And for him, what was the promised land?

55:40 Not being regenerated by the Holy Ghost, washed in the blood of Christ, made a holy man, a holy woman, and go to heaven when you die? It was to be able to use any restroom in the north or south regardless of your color. That was his promised land.

55:59 And any man who says the promised land is integration is a false prophet.

56:06 And I say that with my dear black brothers and sisters in this congregation knowing that to my knowledge there isn't a gram of racism in my spirit. And that your heart says an amen to what I say. I have a dream. Yeah, you had a dream, all right.

56:22 But your dream, Mr. King, is now a nightmare.

56:28 Because it was a dream of your own heart and not a dream based upon the word of God. Holding out a material, earthly, temporal utopia and using those powerful facilities of eloquence to lead people down a path that can only land them in hell.

56:54 Now, I know that won't make me popular. But I love you enough to tell you the truth. It's love that impels a man to be willing to take on the chin what he'll have to take when he says beware of the leaven of and then he's prepared to name the Dr. Schullers and the Dr. Luther King's and the Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's and he's prepared to name Romanism and liberalism and call them what God calls them. And the third and final objection to this approach is number one, you'll offend people. Number two, you're not acting in a loving manner.

Objection 3: You Will Hinder the Ecumenical Movement

57:35 Number three, you'll never advance the ecumenical movement by the employment of this method and this activity. You know what the ecumenical movement is? It's the movement to bring all religions into one great big hug.

57:55 And each one looks at the other and says what you believe is just as good as what I believe. I'll leave you free. You can believe anything you want so long as you leave me free to believe anything I want. We all ultimately are for the same thing.

58:10 That's the ecumenical movement in poor man's terminology. And it is the calculated effort to have one global religious hug fest.

58:22 That's it. That's what the ecumenical movement is. And the worst hindrance to the ecumenical movement is for a man to say there's such a thing as truth that is absolute. Absolute, propositional, definable, and saves.

58:39 And there is error that is recognizable, propositional, and it damns. You want to throw a monkey wrench into that whole hug fest, you just talk about absolute truth that saves and error that damns. You won't aid the ecumenical movement. Well, bless God, if I go to my grave, having never aided that movement, I shall go to my grave with honor.

59:11 Now, there is a true ecumenicity. Christ prays about it in John 17. But it's an ecumenicity in the truth. He says, I pray that they may be one.

59:23 Who are they? He describes them. They have received my words. They have believed that I came forth from you and that I go unto you.

59:33 They have believed in my identity as God. Son of God and Savior of sinners. He says, I pray that they be sanctified by the truth. Thy word is truth.

59:46 That's the ecumenicity that makes us pray for Presbyterians over in Franklin Square this morning and in New Rochelle and for a church up in Monroe County and for one in Moorestown. We don't get anything by doing this. Our hearts are one with those who are one with us in the truth. But I count the Lord's enemies my enemies.

60:12 And you sit here this morning and deny that Jesus Christ is the eternal word who from everlasting in the mystery of the Trinity was one with the Father and the Spirit and that that eternal word took a true humanity in Mary's womb by the mighty operation of the Spirit so constituting Jesus of Nazareth truly God and truly man who distinct and separate natures in the one glorious person forever. Deny that, my friend, and you and I have nothing in common. My Savior is God of God and man of man. My Savior made under the law lived a life of perfect obedience to God's law and in fulfillment of His own engagement to bear the brunt of divine wrath against the law that I have made. I broke. He willingly and voluntarily assumed all of my debts and liabilities and went to the cross not to be a good example of the nobility of self-sacrifice not to be the apex not to be the epitome of the expression of selfless love. He went to the cross to die the just for this unjust sinner to bear in himself the curse of God's love.

61:39 The curse of God's love. The curse of God's broken law that I deserve. It was substitutionary penal satisfaction. Wrath was poured out from heaven into the soul of my blessed Savior.

61:54 You deny that and say any noble thing you want to say about Him and you're not my friend, you're my enemy. You're an enemy of the cross of Christ because that's what His cross is. You deny that the same one who was wrapped in linen cloths and laid in the borrowed tomb as the one who came out of that tomb on the third day the same person who went in came out throbbing with a new quality of life which is not fully described in Scripture but which is called newness of life which is called life that is immortal. You deny that Joseph's tomb is empty for any other reason than that he rose from the dead and you deny that he rose from the dead and you deny that he rose from the dead and you deny that he rose from the dead and you deny that he rose from the dead and I have nothing in common in terms of religion, my friend. I may join hands with you to help pick up a truck under which a man is pinned and in the common bond of human sympathy common to all men where grace is not totally taken away from their hearts in terms of human sympathy and I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with you and sweat and groan and strain with you to lift that bumper to get the man out and spare his life. Yes! And if it means we must stand shoulder to shoulder on a battlefield to defend our liberties for ourselves and our children and our grandchildren yes, we have much in common but if you mean to lock arms and say

63:23 we're all going to the same place because we all believe something somehow or other in some way or another about God and Jesus in heaven no, no, my friend I lock no arm with you until you say Jesus is to me what the Bible says he is son of God and son of man Jesus is to me what the Bible says he is God's one appointed substitute for sinners who died the death I should have died who rose from the dead the third day who went back to the right hand of God the Father Almighty from which he will come in glory and power to judge the living and the dead then my friend I don't have enough arms to lock with you I don't have enough arms to lock with you we are one in the spirit because we are one in the truth the whole idea that we just all lock arms and forget our differences and say well we're one in the spirit everything's alright because we all can gibberish in tongues and you can go to mass and bow before an altar and engage in the blasphemy of the mass and the blasphemy of praying to the saints and I can go to an evangelical church and sing amazing grace and then we come together Tuesday night and babble in tongues and hold hands and sway together and say we're one in the spirit rubbish rubbish

Conclusion: Reiteration of the Warning and Call to Discernment

64:50 now my friends this is what Jesus was doing beware he says watch out for the teaching of the Pharisees with all of their emphasis upon tradition as opposed to the authority of the word with their emphasis on the external as opposed to the internal with their emphasis upon ritual and form as opposed to reality watch out a little bit of that leaven will get in you and it'll work through until it spoils the reality and vitality of true biblical religion that is preoccupied with the heart and with life and with truth and with obedience to God beware of the leaven of the Pharisees beware of the leaven of the Pharisees of the Sadducees rationalism you take your puny little mind and make that the measure of all reality that's the curse of secular education that says man's mind is the measure of all reality when man's mind is nothing but a little created entity made not to be a creator of truth but to be the receptor of the truth that is revealed by the God who made it beware of the leaven of the Sadducee

66:20 beware of the leaven of the Sadducee beware of the leaven of the Sadducee the minute you begin to worship your brain you're worshipping a false God and you'll go down to hell with that God unless you repent beware of the leaven of Herod having just enough religion mixed with certain political views to keep everything going smoothly I call it God and country religion just enough God to make sure everything in the country goes fine that means that you can still live a well-heeled middle class a well-heeled middle class or upper middle class life of materialism and still feel comfortable and say I'm going to have the best when I die too beware of the leaven of the Herodians they don't want enough of the revealed religion that'll shake them loose from their materialism and their sensualism Herod still wants to shack up with a woman he has no business having and when John says you've got no right to have her off goes his head beware of it friends it permeates the air it throbs through the very climate of our society beware of it beware of it beware of it be on your guard beware of the leaven the false teaching and beware of it in terms of the many ways that it comes to us God willing the next time I preach I want then to apply it specifically

67:47 to what I believe to be the three or four most frightening manifestations of

68:35 , when we think of the gullibility of men in things religious and how men with fair speech deceive the multitudes we pray that the word of Jesus will fasten itself upon our consciences that we may ever be alert and awake and ever ever watchful of the leaven of the modern Pharisee the modern Sadducee the modern Herodian or the modern Pharisee oh that we may be discerning God deliver us from religious gullibility oh deliver us from religious naivety deliver us oh God from anything and everything that would leave our souls vulnerable to that leavening influence of error that can only cripple us if we are in Christ and can only drive us further from your truth and your salvation if we are not in Christ bless the word preached today oh God bless it and seal it to our hearts by the power of the spirit we ask in Jesus name Amen