Myths That Make Us Miserable XIII, The Truth About Staying The Course

I have this, I thought it was so important, I did put it in overhead. Oh, I didn't mention while you're turning it, the senior high is not gonna meet tonight because of the weather and some other things that are happening in terms of schedule, so senior high, you're postponed for just one week. Matthew 7, 15 through 20, here we go. One of us all just read it from the overhead, that way it'll kind of, and then lift your voice, and let's let the word of God fill this place 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. Now, that's the normal scripture reading. I thought it might help you, just to maybe pump you up a little bit and get you really set. We're gonna read it from the message. Here's what it says in the translation called The Message. Read this one. Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot. Dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they're out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma. Look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are gonna be chopped down and burned. Now, does that say it or what? Huh? I didn't like the way you looked up here when I read that, Josh. Well, some years ago. Lost my head, there we go. Some years ago, here in our area, a young church, I mean, a group of really sincere Christians and seekers were almost torn apart. A local TV station had told the church that a former NFL player who had turned a powerful young evangelist and prophet was coming into the area for a few nights. And would the church consider hosting them for a few meetings? Well, the prophet was everything he was billed to be. I mean, he was a powerful speaker, articulate with the Bible, I mean, skilled in handling it, insightful, loving in his language and rather soft-spoken. And he had an uncanny ability to sort of identify sin and points of struggle in people's lives. His messages always seemed to challenge the people to deeper commitment and repentance and sacrifice and going deeper with God. And at first, the leaders were really impressed. But after a few visits to the church over a span of several months, things slowly began to go wrong. Some who had been impacted by the prophet became impatient with those who weren't. And so some division began to surface. More and more sin was exposed. And the only persons who really seemed to know what those sins were was the prophet and his team. And finally, in one visit, the prophet shared that he believed that God had placed him as the apostle of the young church. And if we would simply, as that church, move ahead, follow his leading, he would just cause great blessing. The flow. Well, that led to serious confrontations with the leaders of that church, and upheaval resulted in near kidnapping and retrieval of one couple who was prepared to leave when that prophet took place. And eventually, the entire leadership turned and said no. And I mean, a forthright repudiation of the ministry. And not surprisingly, two years later or so, wind came back from the prophet's home fellowship that there had been a total meltdown of that church under charges of cult-like behavior. And if I sound like I know the situation well, I do. That young church was this one. The year was 1983. We were just getting our legs as a congregation, and we almost had them chopped off. Jesus says in this passage, watch out for wolves. They're bad news. Now, if you're new to us, or if you've been in and out for the last weeks, just let me refresh you about the context. We're nearing the end of the Sermon on the Mount. 13 weeks we've been in this passage of scripture. Jesus has spelled out what life in the kingdom of God is like, what true righteousness is all about, what the kingdom of God is to be here on earth, right attitudes, how to deal with practical issues such as anger or lust or stress or worry or acceptance, all things we've talked about over the last weeks. And then eternal matters, how to know God, how to gain divine acceptance, how to have your prayers answered. And now he's coming to the closing of the message and he's saying, there's a couple of ways you can go here. Last week, Pastor Jeff talked about the broad road and the narrow road. And Jesus makes it very clear. There's just two roads, there aren't all bunch, just two. One is a broad road full of people, all kind of ditty bopping on down sort of merrily on their way. But Jesus says the end of that road is destruction. And he said, there's also a narrow road. And it tends to be a lot more lonely, a lot more difficult. But at the end of that narrow road is eternal life. Jesus said, make no mistake, the broad road is popular. It's inclusive, it's open-minded. I mean, to be using today's parlance, it was the spiritually correct road. You have your way, I have mine, we'll all kind of get there, just sort of do our best. And so, Jesus said, no, it's the narrow way, the spiritually incorrect way, if you will. By definition, it's narrow. It leads through one gate. Or again, to kind of make the analogy similar, there's just one ramp onto the narrow road. Jesus said, if you'll permit the paraphrase in John 14, six, I am the ramp, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father but by me. And that can sound so harsh to a person who is sort of openly, you know, kind of embracing of all kinds of religions, but folks, we didn't say it. Jesus said it, I am the way, the truth, and life. There's just one road. And Jesus authenticated his message by being raised from the dead. Jesus said, this is so important because if you get on the wrong ramp and the wrong road, your eternity is at stake. And next week, we're gonna talk about what happens to people who choose to go a different way. Jesus clarifies, however, for those who've already chosen, and I know most of you have made the conscious choice to get on the narrow road. He said, wait a minute, it's not over yet, folks. You know, you don't get on this road and then just kind of put your life on a sort of spiritual cruise control, you know, put up your radar detector, and down you go in the road of life. No, he said, on that narrow road, you gotta be careful because along the way, you gotta make some choices, and there's some false guides out there, some wolves in sheep's clothing, who, if they can, are gonna bump you off the road, and you'll end up in a ditch. Or worse yet, you'll get on the wrong road. Jesus says, to the contrary, you need to be alert. You need to realize that there are issues at stake, as I hope my illustration about what almost happened in North Way might suffice to say, and Jesus said the tricky thing about these wolves, they're all sprinkled out there, you see, with the real thing, and you gotta have, and really, the essence of this message today is about discernment, discerning the way to go. Have you ever stopped somewhere to ask someone for directions, and you knew in a heartbeat that they had no idea, but they tried to tell you anyhow how to get there? I was up in Ford City for a football game this fall, and I was trying to find Ford City, and I stopped the place and asked for directions, and the guy, you know when you're in trouble, when the guy behind the counter yells to the guy in the stock room, hey, Max, got any idea where Ford City is? And you know, oh, yeah, you take six miles there and turn right, where the road just about falls off, you know, you can end up way out there. Well, folks, believe it or not, there are people out there, if you go to them for spiritual counsel on the narrow road, they're gonna mislead you because they don't know where they're going. And just to underscore this, Jesus makes it very clear, and if you read on through this passage, these are the most sobering, graphic words that Jesus uses in the whole Bible. There's gonna come a time at the end of this road where we're gonna stand before God, and if we're on the wrong one, folks, our eternity could be the wrong eternity. You know, kind of as an aside here, the Lord's spoken to us that this whole year, the year of 95, is to be the year of grace in our body, great grace, and we talked January 15th, if you haven't heard that message, you might wanna get it today. Love, acceptance, and forgiveness without measure. God said, you know, let there be love unconditional. And acceptance openly with one another, and forgiveness available. God's saying that that's what we're gonna be about. But how many believe that grace, the grace of God, is always to be responded to with obedience and faith? Amen? Amen? Without it, you see, without it, grace just becomes this excuse, this license to do your own thing. That's not the narrow road. And so let's look at this for just a few moments. Why should we watch out for this? Let me just underscore the motivation. Three reasons, Dave, if you would, please. Well, number one, why should we watch out? If you're taking notes, use that outline. They are real. Folks, these kinds of false guides are everywhere. These are not straw wolves. These are real dangerous people, and they're everywhere. Don't be naive to think they've always been there. Don't be thinking, well, I could never be misled. Wrong. Many times, these are the most godly-sounding, articulate, charismatic, even loving people you'll ever meet. Number two, because of that, they're dangerous there. They're dangerous. They win your affections and then your trust by right-sounding jargon, oftentimes biblically-supported rhetoric to pull you in. But once you're in, you're quickly caught in a web of half-truths, distortions, hyper-spirituality, and control that becomes very difficult to sort out. And these individuals tend to be unyielding in their demands, eventually using people to rip them off toward their own ends. They don't really care about people when it comes down to it. They care about their own ego and vision and their own perception of what's right. David Koresh didn't really give a rip about the people that went to their grave. He knew what was about to happen. You know the word for ferocious that describes these wolves? And it's graphic. It literally has the picture of a wolf with blood dripping down its jowls from a sheep just torn apart. And these people will tear apart. The flock of God. Another reason why we need to be apprised of these things is for all the discernment that we need, not just for ourselves, but for our family and friends. We have family and friends that are asking, you know, we live in an age when there's so many choices to make about what input we're gonna get. You may walk into our resource center out here and look at some books. You read Christian books. You buy tapes. You watch television. You listen on the radio. You go to seminars and conferences. I mean, we all have all these options. How do you know what's right? How do you know what you should be exposing yourself to? This week, I had these three questions. Someone handed me a book, said, do you think this book is okay, Jack? Another one said to me, do you listen to so-and-so on the radio? They mentioned someone that comes on late in the day. Another one asked me about the Toronto Blessing. What do I think about that? You might not even know what the Toronto Blessing is, but you need to know what that's about. If someone says, hey, do you want to go to Toronto? You need to know. Facts tell us that probably in the next five years, a third of you will relocate. When you go to another city, how do you find a good church? Ever ask that question? How many, my own son, David, is going to college this fall, and one of the things that he's gonna do when he gets there, he's gotta find a church. Hopefully, he'll find one he likes. He said to me, Dad, I haven't had much choice in the last 17 years, so. I'm gonna get a little freedom here now and check some things out. But how does he discern what's right and what's wrong? How do I know what's gonna build me up or what's gonna push me off to the side of the narrow road? Who are real teachers and prophets and who are the wolves? And folks, again, I want to underscore, this can happen to you or to someone that you love. I had a dad stop me this week in one of the places where I go during the week. Poor dad is hard about his own son, who's gotten caught up in something that just, there's strange behaviors and he doesn't know what to do. And this is a godly man in the ministry, and he's talking about his own son. Who are these wolves, Roman numeral two, who are they? Well, this may surprise you. False prophets, false teachers. Listen, these aren't just the people who make wacko kinds of theories. Anyone here see the book that came out in 1987, and the name of the book was 88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in 1988? You have that one? Yeah, I saw that book. Well, it didn't happen. So you know what the author did? He didn't repent and say I was a false prophet. You know what he did? He wrote a new book, 89 Reasons Why Christ Is Gonna Return in 1989. And you know what? More people bought it. I just, you know, what kind of thinking is going on here? Well, that's kind of an obvious false prophet, right? But some of these people are very, very clever and much more subtle than that. These are people sometimes who are able to sort of just get in by using the right language and then they pull the rug out. You know, in the Old Testament, false prophets, one of their primary sort of characteristics were they had an amoral optimism about things. In other words, one of the chief things they used to say was, hey, wait a minute, everything's gonna be fine. In fact, Jeremiah stood up and prophesied to the false prophets and he said, woe to you false prophets who say peace, peace, when there is no peace. Jeremiah 811, he said woe to them. In the New Testament, there were prophets coming along and teachers who were blurring the issue of salvation. This happens today, often sort of widening the narrow road to include just about anything people wanna believe is okay. Prophets that would come along and say, hey, that broad road, it doesn't lead to destruction. How could a loving God consign people to hell? And can I say to you, a loving God does not consign people. People choose their destiny. God says, here's the choice, you make it. Others say Jesus plus something will, that will ensure your salvation. There are prophets out there who sing, it's Jesus plus baptism, it's Jesus plus good works, it's Jesus plus giving and whatever. Friends, that's not just Old Testament, New Testament. Can I tell you this morning, in pulpits all around this city and around America, people will be in churches where they will hear things like, hey, it doesn't matter what you believe all that much, as long as you're sincere, you'll go to heaven. Or things like, hey, try hard, do your best, don't hurt anyone and God, he'll be pleased with you and he'll open heaven's gate to you. Things like, well, if you attend church and you're baptized in the right place and you give periodically, that's all that really counts. And people will line up to hear these folks this morning, not knowing that they are walking into a den of wolves in sheep's clothing. False prophets are not just wide-eyed, fist-pounding doomsayers, they are impeccably dressed, perfectly groomed, extremely articulate, pulpiteers many times, whose congregation has no idea what the true gospel is and all they really care about is advancing their own career and reputation. It happens all the time. They're not what they appear to be, Jesus warns. Don't be fooled by their disguises, their credentials, their garb, their outer language. He said, look much more deeply than that, because those disguises are simply meant to fool you and pull you in. And dear ones, again, it can happen to anybody. Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, again, if you don't have it, I did put it on the overhead. Look at this. Paul is speaking to the church at Ephesus, a church that the apostle himself had established for three years, he taught it. And here's what he said to the elders and leaders at the church in Ephesus. Are you there? Look at it. I know that after I leave, Paul writes, savage wolves, there's that language again, will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. Again, can I just underscore, again, please don't think, hey, this is for the guy down the aisle. This is for that poor misguided person in my neighborhood. Folks, we need to understand, God is saying to us, be on the alert, be on the alert. And the reason that we're putting such emphasis on God's word and the reason why we are teaching the word on Wednesday nights, line by line and precept by precept, is so you can grow in your own discernment, so you can sit in there or turn on the television or go in the bookstore and you can know that you know that what you're getting is right and good and healthy. I just want to put a big sort of magic marker line under Wednesday night as we start in Colossians. Give it a shot, come out, invest 90 minutes and get the word into your heart and a time of ministry and it will affect you. There's so many people out there. Folks, there are people in our church, we have sort of a continuum, if we had that graph. I mean, when it comes to the Bible, there's people on the left side with that sort of flaky subjectivity, it's somewhere in the Bible. You know, where does it say God helps those who help themselves? It's Hezekiah 1710, right? Now, the sad thing is, there's a large portion of us that don't know that that's not in the Bible, number one, and Hezekiah isn't a book of the Bible. And we have a lot of this kind of, well, you know, on the other side, there's this rigid orthodoxy of like, tell me the chapter and the verse and if it doesn't say it just like this, I don't believe it, dah, dah, dah. I mean, it's real rigid. Well, God said, that's not where we wanna be. We wanna be in the middle somewhere where there's a vital spirit-breathed understanding, where the Bible is coming alive and giving sustenance to your soul and sustaining your walk with God. That's where we wanna live. But you've got to get yourself in the Bible. Bring your Bible to church. Bring it to the teaching time, to the Bible studies. Become familiar with it. And how can we know, how can our family and friends know if they're dealing with a shepherd or a wolf? Jesus said, well, here's the way. You know by their fruit. He changes the analogy. He says, by their fruit, you're gonna know them. Sometimes the fruit is in the life of the teacher himself, which we'll talk about in a moment. Sometimes you see the fruit in the people that follow him. Ask yourself a couple of questions for a while, asking this, are the lives of those individuals kind of steady and consistent and sort of growing, or are they always up and down and radically blowing in the wind and going through trauma? Are they constantly negative and critical and judgmental, or are they full of faith and positive? Are they increasingly open to other expressions of the body of Christ, or are they more judgmental? And exclusive. Good things to ask about the fruit of a ministry. Check the fruit. If you find good fruit, Jesus says, know this. If you find good fruit, it didn't come from a thorn bush. Good fruit, Jesus said, comes from a healthy tree. Do some fruit inspection. Now, here are the four criteria for you to inspect some fruit to discern a prophet or teacher or authority. Four things you need to know about them, and we'll conclude, all right? Four things. How do they handle the Bible? How do they handle power, money, and people? The first one has to do with content. The last three have to do with character. Write this down because it may help you make some very important decisions for you or someone you love. Number one, how do they handle the Bible? The first question to ask when you go into a church are they using the Bible at all? Or do they just kind of make reference to it and put it aside? You'd be amazed how many people don't even look to see if the Bible's being opened. Some places it's never quoted, rarely read, and largely ignored. And if it is being used, how is it being used? Proof texts? I mean, are people just reinforcing what they're saying? They'll say something, they'll just give you a text and that's it? Or do they let the scripture speak as they're written? Are they used always under the kind of real sort of hyper-elitism? There was a church that sprung up in the 70s and early 80s in Pittsburgh where very clearly if you were in that church, you knew what God was doing and if you weren't, then you didn't know. And it all had to do with sort of this elite interpretation of the Bible. You know, in my own life, I'm sure you know this, I have a lot of teachers that help me. I listen to a lot of teaching. I read a lot of books. I have a lot of input. I need to have my spirit fed. You know, when I go on vacation, I visit churches. I get a lot of tapes. I even watch a little TV and listen to some radio. Here are the three criteria I use. I don't have this on the outline, but you might want to jot it down. First thing I ask is, is there any obvious distortion in the teaching? I mean, if I walk into a place and a guy says, you know, it's kind of hard for me to believe that the resurrection really happened. Well, that's not real difficult, okay? But you can walk into some places and people say, you know, it's your faith and your good works that really please God and will get you to heaven. Well, that's a distortion. It's by grace through faith that we're saved. You know, if they talk about things like, you know, the cross is a symbol, not really a truth, that you have, you know, the virgin birth is a myth, the Bible is not the word of God, then you know that you're really, you better beware. That's some bad fruit. Second, I ask myself, is there a proper balance? Or is that teacher only speaking about one or two subjects all the time? You ever notice that? There's some teachers, all they'll ever talk about, you know, is right-wing politics. The message for today is how God's gonna save America. That's the same message for next week. Or healing, that's the only thing they ever talk about. Or, you know, whatever it might be, success. Or there's some psychology principles as you get week after week. You better look carefully at that. Why are they stuck in one thing? Why don't they open up the whole counsel of God? And particularly, I have to say, as it comes to openness to the Spirit, is that teacher really open to the Spirit? Are they real rigid, kind of cutting off freedom in the Spirit? The Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Third thing I ask myself is, are there any glaring omissions? Any places where they just neglect to talk about things? And if I'm there for several weeks, or listen, or read a bit, and I don't hear things about repentance, and holiness, and humility, and community, and sexual purity, and sensitivity to the poor and the oppressed, I know that there's probably something wrong in that person's life. I mean, if key themes are missing over a period of time, and an imbalance gets created, folks, you better check the foundation, you better look at the tree, because that fruit could be bad. Check the fruit, check the fruit. Check the content of the teacher. Now, by what I just said there, most of you will go and listen to some of the same radio preachers you always do listen to, and not realize that some of the stuff that you're getting is really at the edge. Because it takes a little more discernment. A couple other things I'll suggest. How does a prophet or teacher use power? Paul wrote in Acts 20, in verse 30, "'Watch out for these people, "'they're gonna draw disciples to themselves.'" Is the teacher, or leader, or speaker drawing people through the power of the word to themselves, or to God? Or do they recognize that it's happening at all? One of the things I'm very sensitive to in this ministry, as we continue to grow under God's blessing, I mean, I am very aware of the factors that are at play every time someone steps up on this platform. I mean, when, did you have any other encounter like this in your week? When somebody was standing and declaring something as truth to you? I mean, there are powerful things happening right now. There are ideas going around in your head. There are emotions that are being stirred. There are decisions being made. There are hearts being touched. And this is a powerful medium. And I'm very aware of how easily corrupted it can become. And that's why I've asked for a group of elders to challenge me, and lovingly come around, and help me to stay on course. And anyone that steps up on this platform, or any other teaching venue at Northwood, the adult education class at nine in the morning, our home group ministry, our youth ministry, wherever it is, every teacher or leader needs to be held accountable as to how they use authority. Are they drawing people to themselves, or to God? I went down to the David Lawrence Convention Center several months ago to hear a motivational speaker. It's a long story why I got there in the first place. But when I showed up, there was almost 4,000 people there, salespeople and all of them. And I mean, when this guy came out, I mean, he started right up there, and he was high energy, and he was going on, and he was funny, and he was really great. But you know, at the end of this several hours, I mean, the only real image I had in my mind was about him. And that's the way it's supposed to be. He's a motivational speaker. And he was great. He wasn't pointing me to God. He was pointing me to him. And he was saying, go out and buy my books and my tapes. Ever watch those infomercials on TV? And people come up and give their testimonies, and Barbara this, and Tony that, and how wonderful they all are? That's safe to say on the tape. You see, I can't, no one can take me to court by saying, Tony, Barbara, you know, fill in the blanks. Okay, gotta be careful what you say. But people take those things, and they sort of worship the individuals. Maybe that's stretching it. But all they're doing is drawing people to themselves and their programs. Folks, I'm not saying those people are wrong. They're not even purporting to be wolves. I'm saying watch out for the people under the guise of Christianity that are doing the same thing. Wolves, you see, have the power to pull people in. And eventually, listen, you'll always feel some bond with the teacher. It's just part of the miracle of the communication. But the question you have to ask yourself is, when I leave, do I feel closer to God or just the teacher? And if that teacher left, would I still be able to go on under another teacher in my walk with God? When it comes to power, by the way, the Greek word for power and authority are sort of interchangeable. You need to know one thing about a teacher who's in authority. Do they have an authority over them? Because the Bible makes no room for a lone ranger, sort of freewheeling in and out sort of person. The Bible says those who have authority must be under authority. That's the end of the story. Number three, the third thing you can check is how does that teacher or prophet handle money? How do they handle money? Well, in Acts 20, if you read just a little bit further on down there, Paul said that these same people, you gotta watch out, he said, because you people know that when I was with you, I coveted no man's silver or gold. And what he was saying was this. I didn't ask the church for money. I didn't build it on a money motive. I didn't teach for monetary gain. I never crossed proprietary bounds for money. I never buddied up to the wealthy in the church for my own benefit. He said, I just came giving you the word of God freely. In short, Paul says, I always demonstrated financial integrity, and the next leader should do the same thing. Now, Paul is careful later on to say to the leaders, share, to the people receiving the teaching, share your material resources with your teacher. He's saying that's the appropriate thing to do. But know this, teachers and prophets, they're susceptible to greed too. And make sure, you know, make sure that they're acting with integrity, because some are better at fleecing the flock than they are feeding the flock. And it takes discernment. Watch out how a teacher handles money policies. Make sure that there's good stewardship practices wherever you may go to worship. Make sure that there are checks and balances in place, as there are in this church. Make sure that the spending practices and budgets and so on are available to you if you are concerned about it, and they should be without any reservation. And you might want to ask yourself, does the teacher get, you know, how do they get paid? Do they get a cut of the offerings? Someone asked me one time, do you get paid when your sermon bombs? I said, yes, dad, I do. Not too long ago, another person, we got out a little bit later, the person said, I was wondering, maybe are you starting to get paid by the minute? No, no, I'm not. Watch how a teacher handles money, tells you a lot. Number three, four, and this one is so important. How does a prophet or teacher handle people? We who shepherd and teach are always aware, I am profoundly aware that God takes this charge of shepherding the flock very seriously. He's the great shepherd, I'm an under-shepherd as are others here in this congregation. And the Lord sets a high standard of expectation. I want you to know, I think many, many times about the condition of this flock and my accountability before God for it. You know, in the book of Ezekiel, if you think you're fast, you can flip there real quickly. Go ahead, turn to Ezekiel. If not, let me just read a portion to you. The Lord says through the prophet Ezekiel chapter 34, listen to this, he says this. Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves instead of the flocks. You eat the best food and wear the finest clothes, but let your flock starve. You haven't taken care of the weak, nor tended the sick, nor bound up the broken bones, nor gone looking for those who've wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled over them with force and severity. And so they were scattered without a shepherd. God says three things, there's three problems about a shepherd or a teacher or a leader like that. They're neglecting the needy. The strong in the flock aren't caring for the weak. Church, this should be a place, and it is a place where I have seen that demonstrated. You know, in the first service, let me just share this. A couple came here from Tennessee visiting a North Way couple for the weekend. They called it a late holiday visit. Last night, their church in Nashville, Tennessee called them with the tragic news that their house burned to the ground. Burned down. No one was hurt, no loss of life, but they lost apparently all their belongings. And they came today in sort of an emotional disarray and came just to worship and then they were gonna head back. And this church just spontaneously took an offering and just in that service, we felt led to do that. And because the strong wanted to reach out to the weak, you know, nearly $2,000 just like that for them to take back with them to start rebuilding their life. People that no one here had ever met. You see, that's an evidence that there's a heart of compassion that's down inside. I believe that in this church. And that's what needs to be there because if it's not there, then that's not the heart of God. Another thing he says, be careful because the callous kind of heart can lead toward people sort of ignoring those who get off the narrow road, who lose their spiritual compass. And can I say this? One of the dangers that I think we're in is we kind of get blinded to how lost the world is. And we come into this