False Religion Q&A #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. Turn to Psalm 119. Psalm 119, Psalm 19 verse 102. The psalmist says, I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way. There is an internal conviction, an internal commitment in the true believer who understands that the Bible is the revealed Word of God, who's come to love the Christ of Scripture, come to love the truth of Scripture, and that which attacks it you have a revulsion and a reaction against that that he says I hate this and we're not talking about hating individual adherents of these of these religions but we hate the system of doctrine because it comes from the devil because it undermines the truth it robs God of his glory it robs Christ of his position it robs people of their souls this isn't something like reading a some Western novel in your in your spare time for entertainment that's not the attitude of Scripture at all toward these things look at verse 128 of Psalm 119 where he says therefore I consider all your precepts to be right I hate every false way now with all of that said it's my pastoral judgment my encouragement to you is for you to avoid the exposing yourself to things of cults until you have you have long and seriously built a Christian mind you see how vulnerable young people are a young Christians young professing Christians are that you know they're they're a year or two into Christianity and then they want to explore all of these other things when they haven't even been established in the truth why would you pursue after error when you're not established in the truth study the truth give yourself to the truth build a Christian mind and then see what happens that's not done in a day that's not done in a year my series of building a Christian mind I spent 55 messages on that just to give you perspective on what we're talking about and it could have been another 55 on top of that and so truth is not something that is easily and quickly attained look at Proverbs chapter 2 this that text just came to my mind Proverbs chapter 2 the pursuit of truth is hard work it is a long course of devotion and patient study Solomon said in chapter 2 verse 1 my son if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding yes if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding you know you think about mining companies that literally move mountains in order to find that small bits of precious jewels and precious metals and things of that nature and and the lengths that men will go to get small quantities of that that's kind of the picture you have here you see you say to yourself I'm I'm going to move mountains I'm going to give myself over to this study of the Word of God so that I can find it my point being that it doesn't come easily it doesn't come in a day it comes through sustained devotion day after day after time year after year over the course of time in order to come to this knowledge of Scripture and the knowledge of truth that the Bible describes and so someone who is a brand-new Christian is not in that posture study the truth beloved look for the truth rather than going after things and trying to dabble in an understanding of things that you know are not true do not dabble with demonic lies think about it this way those of you that are married those of you that would like to be married just coming back to that marriage illustration because I think it's really helpful and instructive let's think about it from another perspective you have a spouse that you love and that you are devoted to are you do you want them do you want to see them starting to develop friendships and friendly conversations with with you know people of the opposite sex these days someone of any sex do you want to see do you want to see the spouse that you love and that you're devoted to flirting with other other relationships flirting with exposure to other to other people and you don't want that be devoted to me you say you grab them by the cheeks and say listening you belong to me don't go chasing after these other things this is adultery even on an emotional level well on a far greater way far far greater way there should be a zealous commitment to the truth in a true believer that makes it so that he's not even interested in dabbling around which leads naturally into my third point here we've seen what about evangelism what about the formal study of false religion said all I need to say about that not all I want to say all I need to say but here's a here's a third question that I want to ask and I could see someone asking this and I kind of had to work through this you know as I got deep into the series my preparation for it I had to ask this question to myself but what you're saying is true pastor then why did you talking about me it's it's a question someone's asking me why have you taught about false religion as a pastor why have you why have you done series on Roman Catholicism and on Charismatics and on moralistic therapeutic deism why did you teach on black lives matters if those falsehoods are not things that you are advocating well there's a really good reason for that I want you to understand that and it's the same reason that I'm doing this series my position as a pastor means that I have a duty and a responsibility before God to protect the flock that's entrusted to my care I have to help people and warn them and give them guide them in an understanding of things so that they are better protected from it and notice the difference notice the difference when I teach and and give try to give according to my feeble instrumentality when I try to give people discernment and and principles to discern false religions I'm protecting the flock I am NOT under any circumstances I am NOT investigating whether they might be true or not I can rule that out in advance when I know that somebody is teaching salvation by works salvation by religious ritual when somebody is teaching that Christ is not fully God in human flesh when I see them introducing new books of Revelation I know in advance that it's a false religion and so I'm not investigating whether they might be true or not I have part pastoral responsibilities that I have to fulfill scripture says Titus 1 9 that an elder must refute those who contradict not every Christian has that same duty a new Christian certainly doesn't have that duty and responsibility that's placed on someone in spiritual leadership but I'm delighted to make this next point and help you understand a perspective on it when I taught on Catholicism here from this pulpit and Charismatics and all of this I want you to understand even in my position when I did that at what point in my spiritual life and in my ministry did I do that I taught those series beloved only after I had completed two degrees at the master's seminary and I had publicly taught scripture for about 20 years before I embarked and undertook to do that why because I was afraid of the topics I did not feel equipped to be at any earlier point in my ministry I had some opportunities or suggestions of opportunities you know to teach on Catholicism and what-have-you when I was still back in California I didn't want to do it because I knew that even in that position of training I wasn't equipped for the task and so you can only imagine beloved you can only imagine the heartbreak that it gives me as a pastor to see people carelessly and at first perhaps ignorantly and then becoming arrogant about it pursuing after and thinking it saying I'm gonna see what Catholicism has to teach I say you're not you've barely been a Christian what are you doing have you exhausted the understanding of scripture can you walk through systematic theology from bibliology to eschatology and all points in between can you do that the answer is never the true answer is never going to be yes to any of that in a different in a different realm I remember my role as pastor just comes out in something like this I remember many years ago getting a getting a letter from someone they were going to leave the ministry that I was affiliated with at the time and telling me all kinds of things about why my preaching was bad and all of that and that's okay but they the letter quoted a bunch of really obscure statistics about the ministry of Jesus in the gospel I thought this is this is weird I know you well enough to know that you didn't independently come to an understanding of these things you didn't discover these things on your own in your own study come to find out later I got wind of the single book that he had read and it had exposed himself to and he's just quoting things out of out of a book that he had read and the book went through his head and out of his mouth before he even digested it without even knowing without even knowing what he didn't know without even understanding the foolishness of the things that he was repeating from somebody else's pen but by the time people get to that they won't listen to you they refuse to be teachable they like being in a position thinking that they've discovered the fatal flaw they've exposed the error that that brings down an entire ministry and that's a pretty heady intoxicating thing to think that you found but it's just the it's just the foolishness and arrogance of youth there's no virtue in that there's no valor in that to refuse to even listen to what the response might be there's no valor and in a church member excluding and closing out its spiritual leadership closing out their elders as they pursue this track and then come and announce a big decision and how they found the truth after being deceived under you know the Ministry of Truth Community Church for such a period of time well people can leave the church people can do what they want it's not about that it's about the the foolish arrogance that causes somebody to act that way and to be unteachable as they pursue a hardened view in error that will damn their souls now look that's just the truth of the matter and if someone expects me to just stand back and just casually accept that and bid them godspeed without without pleading with them without doing something about it they've got another thing coming that's why we're doing this series but going back why did you teach about false religion as a pastor what all that I want you to see is that the very spirit that I'm calling you to as you as things come to you I'm calling you to the very spirit that I myself practiced as pastor that there is a legitimate what other word can I use there's a legitimate integrity to what I'm saying to you I have practiced this myself I did not rush into those studies I feared the task I needed time and I needed maturity and even then beloved even then when I started to undertake the task and prepare for those different series even then I surrounded myself in my study with books by multiple trustworthy Christian authors to put guardrails around what I was doing what I was thinking to make sure that I didn't get off track on that I did not even study alone as a pastor and so when it comes to Catholicism and it comes to seeker sensitive ministry and charismatic the charismatic nonsense and all of that understand this you know and I'm answering the question why did you teach about false religion as a pastor well listen responsible ministry in our region required me to address all of that because those forces are are living and active and prominent even even preeminent in the region that we live at here in in the Cincinnati area this is an area steeped in the history of Catholicism steeped in charismatic stuff steeped in the the most ridiculous shameless seeker sensitive things of course I'm going to preach that when it's all around me I have to address that it's part of my responsibility if I were in Utah if I was in Salt Lake City I'd do an extended series on refuting Mormonism because context requires it but beloved for you if if duty does not require it then spend your time in the truth spend your time in in planting your roots and growing your roots deeper and deeper into the truth reading not only scripture but reading established men reading Lloyd Jones reading Ian Murray reading Charles Spurgeon reading James Montgomery Boyce reading men of that caliber that's where you will develop that's where you you will grow and incidentally you'll develop the discernment to be able to tell false religions and to and to recognize their heresies and their errors but doing it from a position of strength of knowing the truth rather than have submitted yourself to them as as your instructors I'm pleading for your souls here I'm warning you because I love you just like a mom who sees her kid wandering off and about to enter into a busy street knowing that that that kid is is is moments away from fatal danger and she says come back Thomas come back here right now stop where you're at if a mom can do that a pastor can do it to call out to the flock that he loves say stop come back don't get into that place where you're going to get flattened and you don't even realize it child's unaware of the danger so often also are the sheep so what about evangelism you know we've got to be discerning what about the formal study of false religion well you got to be discerning why did you teach about false religion as a pastor well you got to be discerning fourthly why do Christians abandon the faith for false religion why do Christians abandon the faith for false religion here you might put the word Christians in quotation marks why do Christians abandon the faith for false religion well beloved let me just say this plainly polemically aggressively and without any sense of apology or qualification when people who profess to be Christians leave the truth in order to pursue an established false religion understand this they do not forsake the truth because they found better truth claims let me say that again people do not leave the true Christian faith because they found better truly better truth claims than what they had learned no listen to me carefully here I want you to understand this and maybe the Lord will help you rescue someone before they go down the wrong path themselves no so-called Christians abandon the faith for false religion for this reason they follow inferior truth claims because they opened themselves up to the influence of the father of lies they opened themselves up to receive the poison of false doctrine into their minds they opened themselves up to men that they in some cases that they didn't even know and started to listen to them and took the posture of Eve in the garden as Satan spoke to her and and subtly twisted the truth he thinks oh maybe there's something to this huh that's a that's something I haven't thought of before let's pursue that train of thought tell me a little bit more that's why they follow inferior truth claims because they open themselves up to the influence of Satan through his emissaries false teachers false books and beloved scripture is abundantly clear that one who decisively finally rejects the truth that they once proclaimed for the sake of a false religion that person was never saved to begin with scripture is so clear on this you know first John 2 19 I'll bring a couple of other texts to bear on it but listen this this is an age-old problem this was a problem in the first century during the Apostolic era even while the Apostle John was alive this spiritual dynamic was taking place there was a flock he had taught them and then false teachers come along and whistle and some of the flock from a visible outward standpoint go after him and they don't come back and the people that John was writing to was confirmed where they were confused about this why did this happen how are we to think about this John says they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us he's making a distinction between visible association with the church and the internal reality of being born again of being a true Christian inwardly as opposed to simply outwardly associating with the people of God what John is saying is they associated with us in an outward visible sense but it was not real they had never been converted they were not of us they were of a different spirit than us and because if they had had the same spirit as us they never would have left in the first place and so don't think that somebody has lost their salvation or that salvation has somehow failed in their account they were never converted to begin with that's why they leave in in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 8 he says they stumble because they disobey the word and it's not simply a matter of disobeying the word in your behavior it's a matter of stumbling and disobeying the word by rejecting the truth the doctrine that the word teaches and then in 2nd Peter chapter 2 verses 20 and 21 we read for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the Holy Commandment delivered to them they had an outward superficial acquaintance with the truth that they had never truly received and what Peter here says is when they turn away they're rejecting the truth it would have been better for them never to have known because a stricter judgment falls on those who hear the gospel of Christ who hear his blood proclaimed and and rejected and turn away from it in order to pursue false religion so men fall from the truth and women they fall from the truth because in part they were never inwardly converted they fall from the truth because they do not prayerfully hold to it listen we can't hold back on these things we have to lay out the spiritual reality of these things regardless of whose feelings it might hurt they do not revere God enough to hold fast the true words that have been given to them they do not truly love Christ enough to stay in the truth because he is the truth and beloved understand this the point that I've been making throughout this series falling away from the truth is a morally culpable act this is not a change of opinion this is a violation of a trust and stewardship given to you by God where the truth has been given to you and you refuse it you turn away from it and walk after that which is known to be false this is a frightening and important consequence now God in other words lets false converts go he lets them go to expose what they were all along a practical application here for you and me knowing these things should make us eager to pay even greater attention to the truth and we have to date Peter at the end of his letter second Peter says you therefore beloved knowing this beforehand take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability don't go there don't get carried away you know it in advance and therefore guard against it and how do you guard against it verse 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ grow in the truth grow in grace grow in Christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity amen so beloved it's a fearful thing to fall away from the truth scripture says and let me give you a piece of advice in light of that if you want to avoid that destination of falling away then just take a simple piece of advice don't take the road that leads to that destination don't expose yourself to false religion and end up there turn away from it and devote yourself all the more seriously and soberly to the truth and if you feel in your heart that you're unstable you're aware aware of weakness perhaps you're new you're still kind of sorting out some things then then beloved you go and you go and figuratively speaking you go and lay hold of the feet of Christ and you fall down before him and say please don't let me stray please don't let me please don't let me go the way of false converts strengthen me help me guard me protect me because I'm vulnerable I'm a foolish child I'm ignorant I'm not aware of the dangers all around me a true Christian doesn't mind praying that way doesn't mind humbling himself that way you just ask whatever it takes in order to be kept rather than proudly saying well that could never happen to me it can happen to you you take heed lest you fall so finally last point here for tonight what about the cultist at my door this was actually the original question that that I wrote on many many years ago and this whole series flew out of a short little article what about the cultist at my door you know Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses they knock on the door and they got their badges or whatever identifying themselves yeah got an 18 year old kid and he's a Mormon elder I don't get that but here's my counsel to you turn them away turn them away don't let them in your home the book of 2nd John is addressing a little bit different issue but the the spirit of it is still the same he says if anyone comes to you verse 10 and does not bring this teaching do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works in the first century when John wrote that the idea was a matter of you had traveling itinerant teachers and you'd bring them into their home your home and host them for a little while and and give them a platform as it were for what they were doing well understand that while it there's not a direct application of that to what we're talking about here the principle is the same a false teacher comes to you wants to enter into your house sit down and instruct you in the things of his religion understand what's happening there these people are there to act as your instructor they are there with the intention to teach you and to lead you into their religion and they are very skilled at confusing you I remember before I was a Christian encountering Mormon missionaries outside my apartment in Bloomington Indiana and they quoted a scripture to me I won't bother you with it but they quoted a scripture to me and and said you know that's this is what you need to think about and it was immediately confusing to me I knew they were leaving something out but at the time I had no idea what it was someone asked me the question do people know that they're false teachers do they know that they're false teachers or are they unaware of it well scripture says that they are both deceived and deceiving there's a passive element where you know not everyone recognizes thinks you know oh I'm I'm going to go out and promulgate false religion they're deceived about it but in their position of deception they are deceiving those that come under their influence and understand these people come with an agenda that they have been trained to execute upon you Satan has come to your doorstep to act as a salesman and trying not only to get into your house but to get into your heart and one of the things about false religions Jehovah's Witnesses they abuse they abuse for example the Greek language and they say well did you know that the Greek meant so-and-so well no I didn't know that you know Greek and you know you know and you don't know Greek and so you can't refute that immediately on the spot you you don't realize that they don't know Greek they're just repeating what's been put in their mouth and you're totally unaware that their scriptures have been utterly repudiated and refuted again and again over the course of time but if you don't have reason to know that you're not in a position to refute it so my my counsel my pastoral counsel you give them a tract pray for them after they leave say I don't want to have a discussion with you I've been warned about people like you and we don't have anything to discuss here and you pray for them you say well what happens to their souls I don't know what happens to their souls I know that God is sovereign over that God can call them out of that but that's not the context where they're the instructor and and you are in the position of the disciple that is not the context for evangelism and let your brief rebuke enter their heart it'll do so better than an argument anyway so as I always say you come to the end of the exposition of a book you come to the end of a series like this there's always a little bit of a melancholy spirit that comes over me because I love the truth that God gives to us and you develop an affection and an attachment to it not just to the word but series by series book by book text by text and you realize it's time to go it's like leaving beloved family at a holiday say man this is this has been great and you kind of wipe some tears away from your eyes and say I'm gonna miss you we'll see each other again let's end it on a positive note beloved I've been I've been speaking as though to Christians here throughout this entire message and let me just give you a word of encouragement God keeps his own Christ protects us from deception and error he says no one can pluck them out of my hand no one can pluck them out of the Father's hand no one can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord but understand that one of the ways that God keeps you is through the means of of you pursuing the truth in a prayerful way and gathering together in a local body of true believers consistently over time rather than kind of spinning out in your own orbit and and being alone and being vulnerable God tells us to test the spirits he tells us to keep yourself from idols and beloved everything that we've said comes to this conclusion if you know these things you are blessed if you do them let's pray together our God and Father our dear Lord Jesus Christ help us to see the importance of what your word has said about these things tonight and throughout this series help each one to be a courageous and discerning Christian and Lord when competing truth claims come to us lead us not into temptation but deliver us each and every one from evil and from the evil one gracious father we want to be found in Christ on that final day between now and then keep us on the narrow path of truth for the sake of our Blessed Lord we pray amen well my friend thank you for joining us for yet another podcast from the truth pulpit and we wanted to let you know that in addition to these audio resources that you are enjoying that there are also written resources from my ministry the Lord has given us opportunity to put some of the things that I've taught over the years in print and I have one book in particular that I would want to call your attention to it's the most popular book that I've published so far called trusting God in trying times it's a book born out of deep personal sorrow and is brought into context you might say through the Word of God how to trust God when you are going through the deepest valleys and the most sorrowful things in life how do you trust God through those times when you can't see your way forward I've been there my friend and the book trusting God in trying times speaks to that spiritual experience in the life of the believer you can find all of my books at the truth pulpit calm that's the truth pulpit calm just click on the link there you'll find links to different books and you will find that they take you to an easy place to purchase them for your reading enjoyment so thank you once again for joining us on the truth pulpit we'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together that's Don Green founding pastor of truth Community Church in Cincinnati Ohio thank you so much for listening to the truth pulpit join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word