Pleasant Lies

Jesus warns us in Matthew 7:15-20 about false teachers or false examples which abound in churches today:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them"

Your first impression of the false teacher (be it a preacher, teacher, or other so-called Christian) is that all is right in them. They are nice and very pleasant. They seem to be a good Christian. They say the right things, their teaching and beliefs seem in general quite right and they use many words that should be spoken by a true Christian teacher. They talk about God and Jesus, and they emphasize the love of God.

So what’s wrong with that? How can we tell there is a problem? Jesus said: "By their fruit you will recognize them. " We need to see all that they are saying or living or all that they are NOT saying or living. We must closely examine the fruit of their life.

Remember the small gate, the narrow path? It’s not an easy road. Listen to what the false teacher or example doesn’t say. He has nothing which is offensive to the lost man. He pleases all. He is in sheep’s clothing, so attractive and pleasing. He has a nice and comforting message. He pleases everybody and everybody speaks well of him. He is never persecuted for his teaching. He is never criticized severely. It just doesn’t match up with the teaching of the apostles. Everyone didn’t like them. In fact most of them were killed for their teaching. Different than our churches today. And the result is different.

The “offensive teaching” that is missing is this:

The false teacher rarely tells you anything about holiness or purity, obedience to God's Law. About righteousness and living as Jesus did, including being willing to suffer any consequence to do so. Telling you that persecution is not optional. About God being just and that being why Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice to atone for your sins. There is no emphasis on our utter sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves. Jesus saves us wholly through His work in our lives, not through anything we can do to earn it. We are saved by grace. Once saved though, he expects us to walk the narrow path.

The false teacher spends all his time teaching you about God’s love and not much else. He wants you to feel good and be comfortable. There is no challenge to holy living. There is no understanding of the cost of Christianity. No doctrine of sin, of hell, of Satan.

Failing to teach the whole truth, and in fact concealing the truth is just as damning as speaking heresies. His teaching is so pleasing to the undiscerning ear that it leads men to hell because it has never confronted them with the holiness, obedience, righteousness and justice that God demands. This is true of a false Christian’s life. No wonder God spits them out. (Revelation 3:16).

He doesn’t teach real repentance either. He leaves a very wide gate leading to salvation and a very broad road leading to heaven. You need not feel much of your own sinfulness. You just ‘decide for Christ’ and join the crowd on the way to heaven.

What is real repentance? Real repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the punishment of God and that without Jesus you are hell-bound. You see the sin in you and want it out. You are willing to renounce anything in the world to get rid of it. No matter what the cost. Your friends may think you crazy and abandon you, but you care not. You may have to suffer financially, but you care not.

The Bible is full of warnings about false teaching. It is a major topic in the Bible. Look through the Gospels, the Epistles and so forth. [1 Timothy 1; 2 Peter 2; 2 John 2:11]

The false teacher does not emphasize the necessity of entering the small gate and walking the narrow road. He doesn’t tell you the necessity of living in obedience to Jesus. He allows you to accept “easy” salvation and walk an “easy” road. He discourages self-examination.

Why is the church in America so weak today? Because it is full of false teachers, false preachers, false Christians and false examples. Are you one? Examine yourself.

Thoughts on the 1st Commandment as the School Year Starts

The First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods before me." To gain an insight as to why we are to have no other gods before Him, let us look at what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6:1-3:

"These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you."

Here we see a reason for the giving of the Commandments. It was so that we would learn to fear (that is, respect, revere and hold in awe) the Lord and in so doing learn to be obedient to Him. To lack fear and respect for God is the essence of foolishness.

Further, He indicated that they not only needed to do this but that it was vital that this understanding be passed from generation to generation. Don't bring forth a generation of fools. I'm afraid in many ways we have done just that in our country because of a failure to teach a proper fear of the Lord.

Let's look a little further in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Verses 4 and 5 of this passage are often referred to as the Shema. They were recited in the morning and evening prayers of the people of Israel each day. And as we have seen, Jesus quoted verse 5 in Matthew 22:37 when He said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Verse 5 is further developed in Deuteronomy 10:12-13:

"And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD'S commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?"

What can we see from this? The consequences of there being only one true God are obvious:

First, we understand that one God means one Law, one truth, one set of commands or principles by which we are to live our lives.

In our culture, it is said, there are no absolutes. No one set of standards. To say so is a direct violation of this First Commandment. To say that there are many truths is to say there are many gods. These other gods might be the gods of the many false religions, they may be Satan, they may be the state, and they may be man himself. The point is, they are not the God of the Bible. The one true God.

Second, we see that because God himself is unchanging, His law, these principles are unchanging as well.

To try to change the law or principles of God is the essence of compromise and rationalization. God is unchanging and His word is unchanging. Consider what He has said in Deuteronomy 4:2:

"Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you."

(We might think of that as the anti-rationalization verse.) His word is not to be changed, but rather, it is to be simply kept and obeyed. You don't fall into the trap of compromise and rationalization, do you?

Third, we see that because God's law and principles are unchanging, they require our total, unchanging, and unqualified obedience.

Since man is totally the creature of God, and since there is not a fiber of our being which is not the handiwork of God and therefore subject to the law of God, there is not an area of man's life and being which can be held in reservation from God and His law.

Fourth, in reading Deuteronomy 6:7-9, we see that education in the law is basic to and inseparable from obedience to the law. We are to pass it on. The law requires education in terms of the law. Anything other than a Biblically grounded schooling is thus an act of apostasy (that is, an abandonment, a renunciation, a defection) for a believer: it involves having another god and bowing down before him to learn from him in direct violation of the First Commandment!

We cannot begin to understand the meaning of education unless we realize that all education is religious. Education in an Islamic society is different from education in a Christian society which is different from education in a humanistic society. Unfortunately, we live in a humanistic society.

Humanistic education fosters in students the basic premises of Genesis 3:5 and the fall of man. It asks man to be his own god, determining for himself what constitutes good and evil. Modern education declares that there are no absolute truth or final answers. Modern educators believe that man is the ultimate arbiter of truth. The Bible, God's holy Word is excluded from the schools. Modern education violates the First Commandment. Let us not violate the very First Commandment in how we educate our precious children.