Ken Loucks - Dealing With Heresy

have you stopped to consider i'd like to ask a question to start today have you stopped to consider how fragile it is to hold on to the truth of god it's not that the truth is fragile but god's truth is indelible and it's immutable it's always been there it always will it's not the truth that's the problem here it's our ability to hold on to it now you know this i think if you've met someone before who used to be in the church who uh this happened to us it's probably happened to most of us where you go to a funeral a wedding and you see someone that used to be that used to share the faith with us and you you do your verb used to be you did a physical handshake and then you and then you did a verbal handshake today we we end up uh skipping the physical portion to just move into the verbal handshaking and saying hello again but it doesn't take very long for you to realize something's missing the truth is not there no more so to speak something happened they they let it go it's just not it's not in there you you sense it you feel it and you know it their life is different i know people that i grew up with in the church who keep christmas today like they'd born and raised in it but i remember that being in you with him in high school i remember those conversations about christmas and we never thought we never wanted to it was always something that was a worldly thing just had no desire to do it i mean bump into them 10 years later after they've left the church and you wouldn't know that they hadn't been born and raised keeping christmas it seems sometimes that they'll go farther than anyone in the world would do to keep the things that they said that they believed were wrong the truth is really fragile it's not fragile in the sense that it's fragile our ability to hold on to it is what's fragile and in fact satan knows this go with me back if you will from the very beginning let's just remind ourselves of his very first interaction with eve genesis chapter 3. genesis chapter 3 we'll read verses 1 through 6. now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said to the woman has god indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden he said to the woman is actually he asked the woman a question you shall you not eat of every tree of the garden and of course the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god has said you shall not eat of it nor shall you touch it lest you die then the serpent said to the woman a statement a lie you shall not surely die for god knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like god knowing good and evil verse six so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree was desirable to make one wise she took of its fruit and she ate she was deceived did she know the truth very clearly she knew the truth what happened how did we go from i know what the truth is to i broke the law i violated that truth i knew that well certainly she had a coach she had someone that was helping her to do that satan was right there it's illustrative to me on how he did that how he tripped her up today i want to talk about heresy specifically how do we deal with heresy what is heresy do we know what it is really do we understand it do we understand its effect on us its potential effect if we're not aware of it and if we're not if we don't have some defense against it i think this is a particularly important subject because we are in that pre-passover mode now where we're thinking about these things and we're analyzing ourselves and we are examining ourselves and where are we in the faith where are we in our walk with god where are we with a subject is profoundly important as our ability to hold on to the truth where are we are we vulnerable i want to talk about these things i want to look at these things today vines expository dictionary on the new testament defines heresy as a choosing or choice to choose and of course then so it is a choice that we make or the ability for one to choose to make a choice in what you believe and then that which is chosen so it's both of those things and hence an opinion especially a self-willed opinion which is substituted for submission to the power of truth and leads to division in the formation of sex such erroneous opinions are frequently the outcome of personal preference or the prospect of an advantage and then lastly what is a sect according to vines a sect this secondary meaning resulting from a meaning from from the fact that you have an opinion and that you hold that opinion those two things the opinion and that you hold it is the dominating significance in the new testament let me read it to you differently here because i thought there was elements of that that were understandable but let's clarify it a little bit better cyclopedia of biblical theological and ecclesiastical literature says this the origin and early use of the word the word originally meant simply choice example given of a set of opinions later it was applied to the opinions themselves last of all to the sect or the group that maintains those opinions collectively all right so it is essentially it has three elements to it it's it's the choice that you make of what you believe okay it is whatever that belief is itself and then it's you as a collection of people who believe the same thing heresies can be based on fact or opinion and can be right or wrong so i really want us to understand what heresy really means so that we can identify what it means for us in the church today it's easy to point to it and say well i think i know exactly what that means but do we let's really look at that let me give you an example from history this is an article titled galileo is accused of heresy on april 12 1633 chief inquisitor father vincenzo uh machilani de fuenza well listen if you speak italian i just butchered that so i'm sorry about that but it's father vincenzo let's call him that appointed by pope urban viii begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer galileo galilei galileo was ordered to turn himself into the holy office to begin trial for holding the belief that the earth revolves around the sun which was deemed heretical by the catholic church standard practice demanded that the accused be imprisoned and secluded during the trial this is the second time that galileo was in the hot seat for refusing to accept church orthodoxy that the earth was the immovable center of the universe that's the orthodoxy the earth is the center of the universe and is immovable so that's the orthodoxy thus his opinion that the earth rotated around the sun was heresy in 1616 he had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs in 1633 interrogation in excuse me in the 1633 interrogation galileo denied that he quote held belief in the commercial in the commercial view meaning that he actually believed that the earth rotated around the sun he says no no i don't actually hold that belief but continue to write about the issue and evidence as a means of quote discussion rather than belief the church had decided the idea that the sun moved around the earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed despite the fact that scientists had known for centuries that the earth was not the center of the universe along with the order came the following penalty we order that by a public edict the book of dialogues of galileo galilei be prohibited we condemn thee to the prison of his holy office during our will and pleasure which could be forever and as a salutary penance we enjoin on thee that these for the space of three years you shall recite once a week the seven penitential psalms and i did not look up those psalms for you because it was bad enough that he had to say them once a week galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest of his life under house arrest it took more than 300 years for the church to admit that galileo was right and to clear his name of heresy so heresy is an opinion that's at odds with the orthodoxy for a given group okay so we begin our understanding of heresy with that in mind galileo was accused of heresy in this case the belief that the earth revolved around the sun the catholic church had already decided that the earth was the center of the universe an undeniable fact of scripture and any teaching or belief otherwise was heresy in a religious context a heresy is a false belief then something at odds with what we already believe is the truth as we saw in the definitions earlier those who collectively believe in a heresy are called sex or factions the group of people who believe the same thing acts chapter 24 let's turn over to acts chapter 24 here and see how this this term is used in the scripture beginning in verse 5 being accused of paul being accused he says for we have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the nazarenes the word sect is the word heresy and a ringleader of the heresy of the nazarenes who is saying this judaism the religion of the jews was not a unified group of believers in a set of fixed teachings the religion was broken up into multiple sects or factions of i over ideological or theological differences in belief so we just read that they accuse paul of being a a harris a heretic of the sect called what they're calling here the nazarenes the approved sect with the pharisees as you can imagine according to them pharisees the body of jews i know list the different sects that we know about the body of jews and benjamites very few levites that became or took on the role of teachers of the law they rose to power in response to an absentee priesthood that had become apathetic about the law and were seduced by power and pleasure the pharisees usurped the role of the priests in becoming the teachers and preservers of the law and the spiritual guides of the people so this is the party the sect called the pharisees the scribes and you'll be familiar with these names that we see in our bibles as we read through the new testament scribes is another sect scribes are a subsect of the pharisees these were the scholarly pharisees or doctors of the law and were primarily lawyers the two main schools which taught judaism were named after the scribes who started them hillel and shemai the scribes were also responsible for copying and preserving the law a third sect of the jews sadducees the body of priests and levites that held political office but whose religious influence was largely relegated to the priestly and levitical functions of the temple their only real religious creed was that they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead nor in angels or spirits a fourth sect the essenes members of this group were anti-social ascetics personal sacrifice and extreme self-denial that's what asceticism is they practiced they practiced celibacy rejecting marriage altogether they drank no wine they did not attend temple services nor did they conduct sacrifices their order was similar to the practices of monasteries and nunneries that would evolve later in the catholic church another sect called the zealots a religious group whose main philosophy supposedly was to defend the law of moses in that regard they sided with the sadducees and that they rejected the authority and the teachings of the pharisees over the law but they were not sadducees while making themselves well masking themselves excuse me in the defense of the law of moses their real objective was to drive all foreigners out of the land of palestine and they were zealous in achieving that goal now we heard this other sect called the sect of the nazarenes but they're not a sect of judaism nazarenes are not a sect at all but they were considered so by both jew and gentile this was a euphemism for the followers of christ of which paul was being accused of being a chief protagonist each of these groups or sex practiced a fairly similar set of beliefs even within the pharisees that's not set we saw that because the scribes had two different schools and rarely did they agree on anything the one thing they did agree on is they didn't want the sadducees in power but they considered anybody that didn't hold the same belief as themselves to be a heretic to hold to heresies because a heresy is simply an opinion or a belief that is in conflict with the orthodoxy that's really all it is the early church was constantly under attack over its teachings and beliefs for example judaizers now those are jewish converts new to the church who over time had a misunderstanding about the application of moses law in the church one of the early challenges the new testament church faced was figuring out how newly converted gentiles would fit in the church bear in mind one thing about this the early church began with what group the jews converted christian jews grew up in judaism and what was the primary tenet the primary mark of a jew you can't be a jew unless you do this circumcision and so the early church was filled with all everyone was circumcised but what about these gentiles who come into the church we're all circumcised so don't they have to be circumcised to be in the church like us there's a let me explain why this is such a challenging thing because judah is judahizing within the church didn't just get dealt with and then it went away there's a saying we use in business it's called it's a statement that some i know will recognize culture eats strategy for breakfast i remember years ago working for a manufacturer and the process for delivering for manufacturing the products that we sold was just complex enough that it was a significant hindrance to growth let's example we make product a and as demand for product a grows we want the time that it makes product a to decrease so that we can make more product a but if there's no benefit to making or speeding up that process then i can only make a finite number of a's and then i'm done well then my sales are limited to the number of a's i can make and sell well no manufacturer wants to be pinned down to a finite number and so we had to figure out a way to escalate that number so that the more we got the faster it got to do it so we could continue to make more and more of product a or product b or product c and so we began looking at a new way of doing manufacturing in the plant culture each strategy for breakfast the idea that we've been doing it this way then this is the way we should do it jews growing up in the religion called judaism would look at circumcision in that way that's a cultural thing just because just because you're a gentile coming in doesn't mean you're exempted from that and so this is a big challenge within the church let's turn over to acts chapter 15 1 and look at how the church had to deal with this issue so the jews are proposing an idea an opinion gentiles should have to get circumcised like like we are in order to be in the church in order for them to have salvation in acts chapter 15 and verse 1 and certain men came down from judea and taught the brethren unless you were circumcised according to the custom of moses you cannot be saved so judaizers would they took the proposition that circumcision was so important it was a salvation issue you cannot be saved unless you're circumcised well all the jews were already circumcised so this wasn't a problem for them but it certainly would look like a problem if you were a gentile verse two it says here in acts chapter 15 therefore when paul and barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them they determined that paul and barnabas and certain others of them should go up to jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question now it's interesting hold your finger there and turn over to galatians chapter 2. where paul gives a little bit more background galatians chapter 2 where we read the first three verses he says then after 14 years i went up again to jerusalem with barnabas and also took titus with me and i went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which i preach among the gentiles but privately to those who are reputationless by any means i might run or had run in vain yet not even titus who was with me being a greek was compelled to be circumcised so it looks like paul takes titus a real world example of a converted gentile living god's way of life having the fruit of the spirit evidenced in his life for 14 years paul was working with gentiles and knew this to be the case so he brought a witness now let's go back to acts chapter 15 and let's look at verse 4 and 5. so when they had come to jerusalem they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders and they reported all things that god had done with them but some of the sect of the pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of moses so this is boy that's the briefest summary i've ever seen of a committee meeting we've so i'm on a committee i'll just tell you why this cracks me up because i'm on a i'm on several committees that deal with product standards that govern products in the plumbing industry and there's one we're doing what's called a harmonization so canada makes a set of standards the united states has a different organization and those standards are very similar and in fact they're so similar that oftentimes i'm on a standard committee here and i'm on a standard committee here for two product standards that govern the same products and everybody that's on this committee is on this committee so we're all doing two committees worth of work on two different days doing the same work for two different organizations we've all about had enough of that deal can we just simplify all of this and have one standard that both can use well that's called so to do that you take two standards that are similar enough in both areas and you harmonize them well that sounds ideal until you get into the nitty-gritty work and then somebody will invariably we spent three four hour afternoon sessions debating with one individual over one issue they were intractable about to try to come up with a resolution i i know what a committee meeting like is like when you're talking about something as hotly contested as the issue of circumcision in the church they gave these men though it's a simple statement they gave these men all the time that they needed to make their case that they had to get circumcised and truly if you want to come to consensus you need the other team to feel as though they've had every opportunity in fact i at one point during the meeting during the last meeting we had i s finally had to weird as this sounds to you and me both i finally had to be the voice of reason i said i'd like to i'd like to to push pause on the conversation and say the following mr so and so i i doubt after the four meetings we've had on this issue now that that you will ever go home and feel that you didn't get your voice heard you just didn't get enough chances to make your case because we've been listening to you for four days well that's the whole reason for it so that at the end of the day when we make a decision that this person doesn't agree with that they understand what's behind it and they had the opportunity to make the very best case possible and then let's come together behind the decision that's made whatever that decision is we want to give you a chance to air out your feelings make your case but then let's move on once the decision is made that's the that's the point of doing it that way well that's what happened here so they they had the chance to make their case and afterwards the the other side if you will got a chance to make their case now remember that what they were saying was that this is a salvation issue okay well then so if that's a salvation issue that means that those people don't have the holy spirit unless they're circumcised that would basically be what you're saying if they don't get circumcised and they can't have the holy spirit because you can't have salvation without the holy spirit and yet the scriptures tell us that the testimony doesn't support that verse 6 now the apostles and elders came together to consider the matter so now what that means is the debate began verse 7 and when there had been much dispute you understand now what i'm talking about there had been much dispute that's just the word is discussion uh debate if you will point counterpoint question that's how it goes it's it's rare that the person who opposes the position or who's proposing a particular position doesn't do that without being questioned during the process they're going to make statements you're going to ask them questions about those statements they're going to try to argue on behalf of those statements and so forth so this is a back and forth and a back and forth and back and forth in the back and forth this all happens while they're making their case not even before you even have a chance to make your case in which there's going to be more back and forth and back and forth so after much dispute peter rose up and said to them men and brethren you know that a good while ago god chose among us that by my mouth the gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe so god who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving the whole giving them the holy spirit just as he did to us and made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith now therefore why do you test god by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear but we believe that through the grace of the lord jesus christ we shall be saved in the name in the same manner as they well this is the opposite argument then salvation by works by the judaizers salvation by grace which is it in opposition to the judaizers then we stay we see this testimony of peter who baptized two cornelius who was cornelius he was a roman centurion an uncircumcised gentile to whom god had given the holy spirit as peter just said and peter argued that to require the gentiles to be circumcised obligated them to observe the whole law as the jew believed you must observe the whole law for salvation but that it's impossible to obtain salvation that way because salvation is by faith that's peter's argument then in verse 12 what does it say then all the multitude kept silent and listened to barnabas and paul declaring how many miracles and wonders god had worked through them among the gentiles so now after paul and barnabas gave their testimony covering some 14 years of preaching the gospel to the gentiles and converting and baptizing gentiles uncircumcised gentiles 14 years of god working with these uncircumcised gentiles which demonstrated that god indeed was calling them and doing works in and through them after that james stands up and renders his judgment upon the matter and that's verse 19. therefore i judge that we should not trouble those from among the gentiles who are turning to god acts 15 19. now this james is the half brother of jesus and he was the pastor in jerusalem and it appears that he was the president or the chairman of this council and so if you've sat in these council meetings as i've been trying to describe them to you they typically end with the chairman saying okay from everything that i've heard this appears to be the decision and so this is what we're going to do perfectly acceptable normal way of running any committee or council so he renders this judgment and it becomes doctrine for the church neither circumcision nor practicing the other rituals rights and ceremonies of the mosaic law as the jews did was not required for salvation now paul's letter to the galatian makes it clear that judaizing in the church did not end with the jerusalem council we can say this is the doctrine does that mean everybody's on board apparently not if you go over to galatians again turn with me to chapter 5. we'll read from verse one through six stand fast therefore in the liberty by which christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage people twist this to mean something and it doesn't mean indeed i paul say to you that if you be become circumcised christ will profit you nothing if you believe salvation is by works then what value is christ then and i testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law perfectly is the implication you have become an estranged from christ you who attempt to be justified by law you have fallen from grace for we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith for in christ jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love paul's again dealing with the same issue if you read through the rest of galatians you see that paul's talking about people who would shackle them with the idea that you still have to do this it's a salvation issue so years later paul's still dealing with the same issue in the church how come it is that we can't just make a decision in the church and everybody's on board and we all believe the exact same thing because in part culture each strategy for breakfast they made a decision that doesn't mean everybody's on board with that decision it's part of the reason why the church battled judah isaac for years but that's not the only issue the church battled the only heresies that the church battled for example gnosticism infected the church and was very troublesome it's a belief system that its adherents try to overlay over other religions one of the tenets of gnosticism is that salvation comes through secret knowledge that only a privileged few have salvation comes by obtaining secret knowledge that is a gnostic principle a gnostic belief this secret knowledge didn't come from the bible but rather from some mystical higher power i once again reminded myself by researching a whole bunch of stuff on gnosticism again and it is a very strange collection of beliefs and and they truly do believe what i just said this is a statement from one of their sites that this mystical knowledge or this secret knowledge comes from some mystical higher power not from our bible gnostic believers in the church attempted to change the gospel because the truth had been revealed to them secretly and paul appears to be dealing with this issue at least in part in galatians go back to galatians chapter 1. we'll read from verse 6 through verse 9. galatians 1 verse 6. i marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of christ to a different gospel meaning you're turning from the gospel that was given to you to something different something that i did not teach you which is not another gospel there's only one gospel so this is not another gospel you're turning to but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of christ but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you let him be accursed as we've said before so now i say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received let him be accursed paul's trying to say that's nonsense there's only one gospel you've already heard it you know what the truth is there's no secret knowledge revealed by some mystical being someplace out there or entity out there someplace the knowledge comes from god paul was particularly concerned about the churches in colossae and laodicea look at colossians chapter one colossians chapter excuse me colossians chapter 2. misspeak there sorry about that colossians chapter 2. verse 1 he says for i want you to know what a great conflict i have for you and those in laodicea as and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh he's expressing deep concern for their spiritual condition and what's happening in their area and he's not able to be there to help them to cope with it drop down to verse 6 chapter 2 verse 6 of collages as youth therefore have received christ jesus the lord so walk in him rooted built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught abounding in it with thanksgiving beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit gnostic tenets according to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world and not according to christ another tenet of gnosticism is called dualism or docetism and that taught that certain antithetic forces are at war with each other throughout the universe evil and good matter and spirit darkness and light the belief was that the physical creation is evil by nature and that the divine spirit realm cannot touch evil being its antithetical or opposite gnostics in the church believe that god would not touch evil by becoming flesh because god is perfect and good and the flesh is matter and therefore bad or evil so god wouldn't have touched the mat he wouldn't have touched or become flesh because of that thus they argued that christ only appeared to be flesh and that because christ was god and therefore spirit that he could not actually have died it's an argument it's a belief it's a heresy john very clearly had this idea in mind in his later in his latter epistles turn over to john first john chapter four the church dealt with gnosticism from a very early point a lot of people may not know this but simon magus was a gnostic and held very strong gnostic beliefs and he had a particularly nasty influence first john chapter 4 and verse 1 uh through three beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits whether they are of god because many false prophets have gone out into the world by this you know the spirit of god every spirit that confesses that jesus christ has come in the flesh is of god and every spirit that does not confess that jesus christ has come in the flesh is not of god and this is the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world asceticism and licentiousness were teachings that flowed from docetism remember asceticism is about is you know it's self denial and and punishment of the self because they believe that all matter is evil asceticism practiced severe self denial and often went further to include such things as self-flagellation you might have seen a movie or or writ read examples of people with the short-handled basically a cat of nine tails punishing themselves by hitting their naked back with this thing repeatedly as a form of self-punishment because matter is evil and to cleanse yourself of that evil they punish themselves okay that's the ascetic approach to that the essenes practiced asceticism licentiousness took the opposite approach believing that matter and spirit cannot touch each other so therefore sins of the flesh don't touch the spirit realm your individual spirit isn't harmed by the sins of the flesh that's the licentious approach to the same subject both of those very potent and dangerous heresy is nothing new to the church of god i've given you just a few examples from the first century church that had to deal with a variety of different heresies teachings that were in opposition to the truth false teachings but their beliefs held by those who had them we're still affected by heresies today in the church because it's in and around the church today i think instinctively we know that but just some in the early 1990s the church was being forced to swallow a new understanding of who god is we got booklets and united or in uh excuse me at the time worldwide news articles and magazine articles and all kinds of fun things which argued for this new understanding of who god was i've i've documented and i have and i think i did a message years ago where i've got four or maybe five god is booklets all written within a three-year period i think trying to address who god is and this new term we've been hearing hypostases it was just a repackaged trinity doctrine trying to find a way to get us to swallow what we wouldn't swallow if they came right out and said we want you to believe in the trinity most of god's people would say sorry we don't believe in the trinity well this isn't the trinity doctrine this is this doctrine that refers to god the father jesus christ and holy spirit there's a hypostasis involved here that you don't understand let me try to explain that to you in 17 sermons that's just one of the of the things that we had to battle some people even today some people believe that god has a sacred name and that if you don't call him by his sacred name that you are in you're sinning against him you have to call god jehovah or yahweh you have to call jesus christ yeshua and if you don't use these precise and correct names that you're wrong some believe it so strongly that they believe it's a salvation issue this is not new more recently i heard an oldie but a goodie about the passover being changed excuse me not being changed by christ after the last supper i was really upset about this by the way just because of of how these things take roots one of the reasons why i think a lot about heresy in the church and how can it spread and how do we deal with it that's why this is an important issue others i think are still tangled up over which calendar are we supposed to be using and they argue that the church uses the wrong calendar so we're keeping the holy days on the wrong days i guess that means that salvation's out for us because we don't agree with what they say to the united church god that's a heresy we have a teaching we have a doctrine that we agree on it's a set doctrine and an opinion or a belief that is contrary to that is a heresy and the person that holds that is a heretic and only a heretic would believe in a heresy right it's heretical as i said heresies in and around god's church are not new but as i said in the beginning too god's truth is not fragile but it's our ability to hold on to that truth that's fragile and that's what makes heresy so dangerous for us you know at this time of year we tend to read paul's writings to the church his first letter to the church at corinth especially chapter 11 right because that deals with passover and we're coming up on passover what does he say in verse in first corinthians 11 19 for there must also be factions that word factions is heresies there must be heresies among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you both the false teaching itself and those that hold that teaching are the ones with the pharisees with the heresies pharisees heresies i can see the correlation in my brain tongue twister for me the word factions means heresies both the false teaching itself and those that hold that teaching i think if we have a conversation with just about anybody in the church we come to realize that we probably don't agree on 100 of every issue 100 of the time we're human beings we form opinions those opinions sometimes are based on life experience there's an allowance in god's church for us to have differing opinions some hold opinions very strongly on both sides of vaccinations perfectly fine you can in good conscience you can be opposed to or not be opposed to vaccinations you have a right to make that decision for yourself because i don't find the word vaccination in the bible we have differing opinions on the veracity of mask wearing or what our civic responsibility are that's on the maybe the more serious side maybe on the lighter side we might argue about who makes the best truck that's ford if you're not familiar with the we have differing opinions on whether or not you should wear brown shoes with a blue suit that's a fact we have differing opinions on it's okay if you're wearing a blue suit with brown shoes some of us might not agree with that it's okay we don't have to let that tear the church part some of us question whether brussels sprouts should actually be considered food that's okay we have different opinions about that all right so it's it's not that we can't coexist with while we have differing opinions what our our goal and our objection is what to dwell together in peace and harmony find a way find that common ground my favorite thing about coming to church and having conversations isn't that we can find something where we can disagree it's to find where we agree to pursue those things where we agree and i think that's why we want to talk about the scriptures together because we're trying to find a way to harmonize our beliefs with each other because we're one body we're one spiritual family and we want our beliefs we want to know that this is a safe place for us to believe what we believe to share what we believe and to practice what we believe right i think we mostly have that attitude in the church does that mean that we are immune from somebody coming into the church and bringing a heresy maybe even not knowing that that's what they're doing or believing that it is in fact a heresy and i got to tell you this happened to me a couple of years or a few years ago now at a remote fee site where somebody managed to bring up in a conversation a belief that they had that was in conflict with united's position and i can look back on that conversation now and actually that conversation went over the entire feast because i allowed that to happen and i can look back on that now and say you know what ken you didn't handle that correctly because of what the scripture has to say about how we're supposed to deal with heresies and that's what i want to finish with today is how are we supposed to deal with heresies and i'm not talking about the church itself and its obligations i mean me personally what am i supposed to do about heresy if i understand that the truth of god is a fragile thing to hold on to and that it can be taken from me then i have a responsibility to hold on to it with both hands as tightly as i can and a heresy can tear that from us and want to show you what that means the simplest and most straightforward response to someone spreading heresy is to reject them and the heresy i'm just making an emphatic statement first the simplest way to deal with heresy is to reject the person spreading it along with what they're spreading and that's a hard saying if you think that's ken lauc's saying it like that's pretty audacious maybe even arrogant but i'm not saying it i want you to see that the scripture says this 2 thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 6. actually no let's go over here to romans chapter 16 first romans chapter 16. okay verses 17 and 18. now i urge you brethren note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them for those who are such do not serve our lord jesus christ but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple that word simple doesn't mean simple-minded it means innocent it means not easily distrusting it means without guile or fraud it means harmless when i think of that i think about eve at the very beginning she wasn't filled with guile and deceit and all of those things satan prayed upon the innocent here the word in the new king james is simple but it simply means as i said it doesn't mean simple it actually means innocent trusting without guile or fraud god has called us out of this world and placed us in his church with other people and so of course it's naturally it's natural for us to want to trust each other brothers and sisters wherever we go even in our own congregation of course in our own congregation that's practically the given but when we travel to other congregations where we hope to meet and exchange hellos and relationships and form and build new relationships with others of god's people which we still want to have that belief and that's perfectly right and good but that does make us vulnerable to be taken advantage of because we can be deceived by someone who has enticing words and uses confusing arguments intent on spreading a heresy or a belief they have which is in conflict with the doctrines of the church that's why i say the simplest and most straightforward response to someone doing that is to reject them and the heresy now let's read second thessalonians chapter three you saw what paul just said about that second thessalonians three and verse six just one scripture but it's an important one it says but we command you brethren in the name of our lord jesus christ that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which you received from us of course as we saw earlier paul was very concerned about the brethren and colossae and laodicea and he added an admonition to them in colossians chapter 2 and verse 8. so let's turn over and look at that briefly here colossians chapter 2 and verse 8. he says beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world and not according to jesus christ and as i said earlier i didn't say this earlier i read this earlier but i deliberately did not define this for you because i want you to understand this word cheat it means to plunder to rob or to steal paul's saying you can let someone plunder you your salvation that's up to you but you can let that happen because he says beware lest anyone cheat you rob you or steal from you through their philosophy and empty deceit if what you're hearing from someone is not in harmony with the truth we've been given we need to run away we need to get away from that we need to get out of dodge we need to do what joseph did with potiphar's wife you need to get out of there and if you have to leave your cloak it's okay we'll get you a new one that's how serious paul wants us to take this subject of heresy because of how dangerous it is for us to subject ourselves to listening to it the apostle john said it rather sternly in second john chapter one i could only say he didn't to me it doesn't sound like he messed around very much with how he wrote the second john chapter 2 john 1 verse there's only one chapter keep looking for other chapters it's just one verse 10 and 11 if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine do not receive him into your house nor greet him he who greets him and shares and his he who greets him shares in his evil deeds paul instructed titus to reject a heretic titus chapter 3 verses 9 through 11 it says but avoid foolish disputes genealogies contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and useless reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition knowing that such a person is warped and sinning being self-condemned the word divisive here is quoted in the new king james but in yours in your king james version if you have one it's the word is heretic and he says reject a heretic after the first and second admonition the question i have for us all to ponder is how do you know whether what someone is saying to you is a heresy or not well if you'll allow me to just say this bluntly god's people are just a little too nice sometimes aren't we and that's okay i mean that's the way god wants us to be towards one another but we need to understand that there's a distinction between being nice and defending yourself against a heresy you have an obligation to protect your salvation i would trade a slight edge of rudeness with somebody who's trying to take that from me so that i could hold on to that salvation so that i don't lose it because i bite off on a little bit i drink in a little bit i take a bite over a nibble of a heresy that takes root inside of me but that's the danger of a heresy is it absolutely can do that and i've watched over the years people who get a little hook in them and after some period of time that thing takes root and away they go we have to be very careful about this one of the reasons that this came up and i i don't give my wife credit enough for some things that she teaches me in life because she teaches me as much as i ever teach her anything i was sent a link to an article and this was the one i was referring to earlier that upset me a little bit and that was it related to whether the the um that christ actually had changed the passover service after the after the supper so i knew what our doctrine was on the subject and and i read through this paper that was given to me to read and i don't know why i read it i do know why because who wrote the paper somebody that i've known for a long time so i thought well they this person can't be this far off so i'll just read it i'm missing something i would probably so i read through it and i wasn't missing anything so i asked rebecca i said do you want to do you want to read this thing and she said do you think i should first and i said i think the proper thing to do here is to anchor ourself in the truth first so i printed out the doctrine that we have on the subject i read through it it was about an eight page paper i read through it very thoroughly and then i gave it to my wife and i said just read through this first let's make sure we're anchored in the truth before we read anything that could possibly be counter to this we read through all of that i'm the one that's a glutton for punishment so i asked her i said how do you feel about reading the other paper now and she says why would i want to do that i thought it's a great response why do you want to do that she says does it agree with this and i said no and she says then why do i need to read that that's how i feel only i read the stupid thing why do we need to consume things that are in conflict with what we believe we know they're out there the better strategy is to anchor ourselves in what we believe now that can be challenging if you're confronted with somebody especially if it's somebody that you know or like or at least having a relationship with maybe it's an acquaintance and you see them at the feast and you're excited and maybe during the feast they bring up a subject you know how often that happens let me tell you we read at the very beginning what satan did to eve for a reason it's his technique and it's so effective that people do it automatically what did satan do because i've experienced this over and over again by the person who wants to plant a seed of a heresy they believe in that they want me to come to their side on they do the same thing ask a question that maybe touches the fringes of where they want to go but that gives them a doorway that if you open it and go in that they have a path to take you down the road they want you to go to see the heresy from their side i wrote i wrote mr mrs dick this morning because the best example of how to counter when we're confronted with a heresy and we don't know it at first the very first thing that we do i first saw mr dick do this years and years and years ago but i couldn't remember exactly because he had done it to me a few times but i couldn't exactly remember how he did it but he does basically the same thing if you ask him a question he's going to counter you with a question before he answers your question he wants to know what ground are we going to be having this discussion on your ground or my ground and so he asks the question tell me where you're coming from so i know where we're going to well the person who you asked that question to who asks you that beguiling question you don't know has a hook in it when we ask them well first tell us where you're coming from i'd like to know where you're coming from first well now that puts them into a conundrum because if they are if they have let's just say deleterious intents and purposes they're going to either have to be up front with you and tell you their position which will automatically stand out because most heresies have to be built like you would build a house because we have well-established doctrines god's truth is not difficult to understand heresies oftentimes are very complicated and so they have to build a case to make it work for your brain and it always starts with a question that's got a hook hiding in it and the only way to reveal that hook is to ask them a question before you long before you answer it tell me where you're coming from and then they have to choose they can either be honest and say well i believe it says this in which case that's pretty much from the beginning going to tell you that this is a heresy or maybe they say the the weaker approach would be to run away because you've already put them into a conundrum that they don't know how to get out of the point at which you recognize a heresy you could be in a conversation with somebody who took a long time to get there but at the point at which we recognize wait a second my spirit is bothered we have been given the spirit of god for a reason it does not harmonize with lies and falsehoods about the doctrines of god it's there because he wants us to recognize truth remember the scripture that says ii timothy 2 15. study thyself to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needs not be ashamed why because you can rightly divide the word of truth but you have to study so we've got to know what the doctrines are before we can engage someone on a discussion about the doctrines and i'd like to leave you with this thought before we read the final passage i want and that is simply this that god wants us to hold fast and hold tight to the truth and it can be taken from us if we allow that to happen the moment at which we recognize that a heresy is being taught we need to run away from that we need to stop the conversation you don't have to be mean just stop the conversation i don't we're not going to be talking about that make sure you anchor yourself in the truth long before you subject yourself to anything that would be something counter to the truth anchor yourself in the truth so we need to constantly be going back and refreshing ourselves of what is it that we believe so that when i hear i can discern when i hear what's false i can discern what's false but if you're never reading you're never studying and you're not entrenching the truth you're not going to be able to discern it when you hear something that's counter to that first second peter 3 14 here's where i want to end today second peter chapter 3. peter had a lot on his mind here as he realized in this second book that he wasn't going to be seeing the return of jesus christ and he wanted to strengthen the church ii peter 3 14 he says therefore beloved look forward to these things be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless and consider that the longsuffering of our lord is salvation as also our beloved brother paul according to the wisdom given to him has written to you as also in the in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures you therefore beloved since you know this beforehand beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness being led away with the error of the wicked but grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ to him be the glory both now and forever i'm not trying to scare us all about being together i'm not trying to scare us from having and building new relationships when we go to when we go to the feast or any other place where we're visiting another congregation i'm saying that we owe it to ourselves and our salvation to be on our guard to always be ready to discern what we're listening to what we're hearing to and to reject the heresies that would steal our salvation from us if we let them take root it's ultimately up to us to protect and preserve the truth god has shared with us and to hold fast to that truth until jesus christ returns may god strengthen us to endure to the end

Channel: United Church of God Portland

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Length: 62min 43sec (3763 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021