“The Bible is a book to be read, studied, and understood, not just listened to through another’s words.” ~ J. C. Ryle
I remember my first women’s Bible study group. We were a very small group and we met in someone’s home. One lady would drive about an hour to come meet with us and teach us. I was a baby Christian. I had no idea how to study my Bible, but I wanted to learn everything there was to learn.
Little did I know that what was called “Bible study” was really our learning from a well-respected and very popular teacher of that time—someone I’d later learn had many red flags. I had bought my workbook and couldn’t wait to gather with the other ladies and discuss what we had learned from our guided questions and answers. We came together, prayed, and then sat in front of a TV where we listened to Beth Moore teach us what she said God had revealed to her.
I was so inspired by her. I hung on every word she said. I was amazed at how much she knew and how intimate a relationship she seemed to have with God. I wanted that too. I was doe-eyed, gullible, and Biblically illiterate. What I didn’t realize then was that I was not learning what Scripture says, how to read my Bible, or how to be discerning. I was learning how to hear God outside of Scripture—and that if I wanted a relationship with God like Beth’s, I needed to be willing to be thought crazy in order to have such a relationship. To be thought such was admirable.
In one teaching, I heard her talk about an old man she saw out in public and how she said God told her to go brush his hair. I heard many other stories that sounded strange and seemed to have no real Gospel-centered or Christ-centered point to them. But she had already taught me not to question the experience—just to be obedient to whatever I felt like God was telling me to do, no matter how crazy. If I questioned it, then I’d quench the Spirit and miss out on an intimate relationship with God.
So, I learned very early how not to study my Bible correctly. I learned to obey whatever I felt in my heart, because that was supposed to be God speaking to me—no matter how strange it seemed. That, according to Beth Moore, was what it looked like to have a relationship with God.
Later, I would learn how to correctly study my Bible. I’d learn how to discern truth from error biblically. I’d learn what a real relationship with God looks like. And I’d learn that Beth Moore hadn’t taught me anything worth holding on to.
I was discipled very early on, but it was in false teaching—and it only got worse from there. Later, God would open my eyes to all those false teachings, and it was a very painful experience and loss. But it was worth it! Now, what I have to hold on to is solid, and when tested, it stands firm. The truth does not fear being tested.
Many today are discipled and instructed, but it is with closed Bibles. They may be told that they will go through a book of the Bible, but they are not actually opening their Bibles, going verse by verse through the text, and hearing what God says. They are gathering around books, workbooks, and TV screens. They are not learning how to study their Bible so they can see if what they are being taught is true.
I’m not saying all workbooks are false, or all study materials are bad. But if you have never learned how to correctly study your Bible, you have no way of knowing if it is true or if it is false. You may assume it’s true because they use Christian terminology and cite Scripture. But not everyone who does so is actually bringing out of the text what it means. There are many false teachers.
We must learn how to study our Bible so we may be able to test all things—even our favorite teachers.
Dear saint, learn how to study your Bible. It is one of your greatest weapons against Satan’s devices.
“A profession of unity that silences truth is no profession of Christ at all.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
Horizontal calls for unity at the cost of vertical reconciliatory truth are merely man’s attempt to bring peace in a fallen world apart from the objective commands of God.
To minimize sin, to call for unity, and to fail to define what is meant by unity is to be dishonest in one’s appeal to a superior unity than what God commands.
Many men come to the foot of the cross, but not all men repent. Many hear that Christ died for them, but they do not hear the command of a King to repent. Many hear that God loves them, but they do not hear that God is just and that they deserve the holy, righteous, undiluted wrath of God.
Many men come together at the foot of the cross and sing Jesus Loves Me, but they walk away worse than before—not having heard the message that confronts them in their sin, the wrath they deserve, the holiness of God, and thereby the exceeding beauty of grace. They do not grasp what they do not deserve, nor are they amazed that God would save a wretch like them.
Many men unify at the foot of the cross and hear much of the correct Christian language, though it is never vertical but entirely horizontal, whereby the death and resurrection of Christ are made man-centered. Love is redefined. Truth is suppressed. Unity is redefined. All becomes subjective. God’s Word is not authoritative. Christ is stripped of His authority and kingly role. He is brought low. Love, peace, and unity are made idols, set above and against God’s Word.
To fail to address man vertically is to fail to honor our King.
We must remember that convictions can be as firm as concrete, and this is good when those convictions are built upon Scripture. Yet pride so easily reveals its ugly head in our corrupt hearts. When confronted with God’s Word, instead of humbly receiving correction, we are tempted to dig in our heels and double down. This danger is not for a few—it is common to us all.
Therefore, we ought never to rejoice when a brother or sister wrestles with Scripture exposing their convictions. Instead, we should pray for them, just as we would want them to pray for us—that we may all see clearly what the Word of God says, and when necessary, repent. Sometimes that repentance must even be public, that our convictions might be shaped by the truth and not by stubbornness.
It is far more grievous to harden ourselves and double down against the truth than it is to hold a conviction in ignorance. May our hearts and minds be continually informed by the truth of God’s Word. And may we be quick to repent when confronted, lest pride lead us deeper into error.
Today it may be me, tomorrow another dear saint. Praise be to God for His Word and for fellow believers who love it and faithfully proclaim it. As Scripture reminds us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).
And we are not without the wise reminders of saints who have gone before us:
“He that is proud of his knowledge, is ignorant of the nature of true knowledge; for true knowledge makes a man humble, and gives him a greater sense of his own ignorance.” ~ Jonathan Edwards
“Do not think it is a shame to repent; it is a shame not to repent. A proud heart scorns correction; a gracious heart yields to the Word, and blesses God for it.” ~ Thomas Watson
“The true test of spiritual maturity is not how much we know, but how much we are willing to submit when the Word of God confronts us and demands change.” ~ John MacArthur
“Do not place your confidence in any man, however faithful he has seemed; test all against the Word of God, for a man may fall, but God’s Word cannot.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
One of my great concerns is how easy it is for us to find someone with a microphone, a platform, and a message that helps us in a specific time. But when they begin to show themselves in error, their “followers” remain loyal and defend them in error.
This isn’t isolated to those who follow false teachers. It can even be those who once taught sound doctrine but sinned in such a way as to be disqualified. Their followers are so loyal to the person that they put away all they have learned—even from this “influencer”—and commit their loyalty to them rather than loving them enough to call them to repentance (Galatians 6:1; James 5:19–20).
We see it also when one changes their convictions from what Scripture commands to what feels right in the moment. Their loyal followers do not take them back to Scripture but pledge allegiance to them as they go in opposition to what God clearly says (2 Timothy 4:3–4). This is even true of followers of what may be known as “discernment ministries.”
Dear saint, we can learn from others and be grateful for how they have helped us in times when we needed it and they rightly handled Scripture. However, our loyalty is to Christ, to the Gospel, the purity of the Gospel, His message, and His Kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:4–7). If a brother or sister sins or errs, we do not follow them. We love them enough to warn them and tell them the truth.
Test everything against God’s Word (Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22).
There’s no such thing as online church. Yes, we absolutely can listen to podcasts, read blogs, and learn from doctrinally sound and biblically discerning believers. And yes, they may help us grow in grace and knowledge of the truth (2 Peter 3:18).
But if we begin to develop a cult-like mindset whereby they can do no wrong—and we do not love them enough, when they err, to warn them—then we need to examine ourselves. Something is very wrong.
Dear saint, find a doctrinally sound church and commit to it. Those believers will—and ought to—love you enough to help you see when you are in error. If they don’t, something is wrong. I want that! I hope you do too.
Be careful not to develop the mindset that anything someone says in a blog, podcast, or from a big platform must be true. At the same time, do not fall into the opposite error of assuming it must be false or that you can trust no one but yourself—that is perhaps even more dangerous (Proverbs 18:1).
If those of whom you listen to their podcasts or YouTube channels, or follow on other social media platforms have always been otherwise doctrinally sound, but then fall into some disqualifying sin or begin to err in doctrine, practice, or methodology—your allegiance is to Christ, His Word, and His message. If possible, love them enough to share your concerns (Galatians 2:11–14), and guard your own heart against the temptation to abandon what you know to be true because of your “relationship” with this person (1 Corinthians 10:12).
Sisters, we are especially vulnerable to this temptation. If we know this beforehand, we will be armed with the truth and less likely to be swept away in error.
When big events happen in our world we tend to look to certain voices who have been faithful to sound doctrine and have been faithful to stand firmly against error. We trust them to proclaim the truth and stand firm in it. But when they err and we are convicted by Scripture of their error, do we stand firm or do we suppress what we know to be true, change our convictions, and follow them in error? Do we recognize our own weakness and ability to err? Are we learning to think Biblically or have we learned to trust whatever these say because they have always been sound? How is this any different than the one who blindly follows false teachers who tell them “God said” and they believe whatever they say because they felt something?
“The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. If she does not speak out, who will? If she is not faithful to Christ, who will be?” — Charles Spurgeon
We often think that when Scripture warns not to add to or take away from the Word of God, it is strictly that men will seek to take up their pen and spill ink where it does not belong, or rip pages (as some in history have) from Scripture that go against who they believe God to be.
We woefully, willfully, and ignorantly ignore the more subtle dangers where this is a present reality in many churches and among many Christians.
We don’t have to rip out pages of Scripture to do violence to the text and pervert its purity. We don’t have to pick up our pens and add to the text what we want it to say (as some have).
We merely need to learn—incorrectly—how to study our Bibles from false teachers. They disciple their followers to read Scripture through a narcissistic lens, whereby they remove anything that forces them to see what is in the text (context) and read into the text meanings never before held throughout the history of the church.
All the false prophet has to do is claim new revelation, go to Scripture, find a text he can do violence to by ripping it out of its context and forcing it into his supposed revelation, and then give a mandate for the church that must be obeyed—or else you are in disobedience to God.
Some ask, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Well, dear saint, when there are those who attack the purity of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, and the heart of evangelism by corrupting the message and mission and anathematizing those who proclaim the true Gospel, it is not we who are causing division. We are obeying God in protecting what is pure, true, and holy. We warn of such blatant attacks against what is pure, and we will not live in a gray area that does not truly exist except in the deceived hearts of men.
Friend, if we fear man and just want peace that makes us feel comfortable, we will quickly find ourselves enemies of God. We cannot unite with that which perverts all that is holy and worship God with a pure devotion at the same time. Such worship is putrid to God, who is holy. Choose where we stand.
“We are all prone to deceit and self-delusion; no man can see himself aright without the light of God’s Word.” — John Owen
Two things can be true at the same time that seem at odds—God is sovereign, and man is responsible.
Today, however, it is often the case that Christians affirm what is objectively true and then, at the same time, affirm what is contrary but feels true.
While two truths can stand together—such as God being both Just and Love—what we often find in ourselves is not two truths, but truth on one hand and what only feels true on the other. We fail to see these inconsistencies until someone else sheds light on them.
Often, we hold to what is true while simultaneously clinging to what feels true, without realizing it, because we judge things superficially and fail to test all things Biblically.
For example: • Can it be true that while a heretic proclaims the Gospel, God may save some in spite of them, while we also obey God in warning that this person teaches heresy? • Can it be true that when a platform is shared by those who represent the true Gospel, a false gospel, and even false gods, the true Gospel may still be proclaimed—and yet much harm may result to the purity of the Gospel because of its ecumenical nature?
You see, we have beliefs rooted in truth, and we also have beliefs shaped by emotions and experiences. Emotions are not inherently bad. Experiences are not inherently bad. But if we elevate emotions and experiences to the level of authority alongside Scripture, we create conflict—often without even realizing it.
If we don’t test these things according to Scripture, they will be tested—and we will be forced to choose.
In order to justify what we believed on the basis of feeling or experience, Scripture will inevitably be compromised.
Even the most faithful defenders of the authority, sufficiency, inerrancy, and immutability of Scripture are vulnerable to experiences that stir deep emotions and set themselves in opposition to God’s Word.
No one is exempt from such temptations.
We all have confirmation bias. We either submit it to Scripture, or we twist Scripture to fit it.
Thus, the authority of Scripture is not only under attack from false teachers, but even from within the hearts of those who are otherwise doctrinally sound. They, too, must wrestle with their own bias, emotions, and experiences that stand against Scripture.
It is easy to find people who agree with us and support us in error. What we need are brothers and sisters who will come alongside us, open the Scriptures with us, and keep our eyes fixed on Christ and His Word. Only then can we discern whether what we feel, believe, or have experienced is holy and true—or whether it is a counterfeit, dangerously close to the truth yet still false.
Any man who thinks he cannot err is both deceived and dangerous.
Scripture alone is perfect and holy. It is the standard by which all our thoughts, feelings, and experiences must be tested.
No matter how strongly we believe something, that does not make it true. We can be utterly convinced of a lie. The question is not how strongly we believe, but whether what we believe is true according to the Word of God.
“Unity without the gospel is a worthless unity; it is the very unity of hell.” — J.C. Ryle
Mark 9:40 is not a call for Christians to set aside their differences with heretics and cults for the sake of working together for a “greater good.” It is not a call to Ecumenism. The true meaning is unifying of the true brethren and beautiful. Let us not miss that.
Those who want to justify uniting with false religions, heretical sects, and cults often appeal to this verse, claiming that Jesus said, “For the one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). But in doing so, they lean on a text that some may feel is unclear—though it is not—while ignoring the many clear passages that instruct and command us otherwise.
They argue that as long as anyone—even from another faith—names the name of Christ, then we can work together. But this passage does not justify Ecumenism, nor does it override or excuse disobedience to other clear commands of Scripture.
We are explicitly commanded to separate from false teachers: • “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). • “If anyone comes to you 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” (2 John 10–11). • “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them” (Romans 16:17).
We are commanded to guard the purity of the Gospel: • “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). • “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (1 Timothy 6:20).
There is no cause so great that it warrants distorting the Gospel.
In Mark 9:40, Jesus is not endorsing unity with false teachers. Rather, He is correcting His disciples for their intolerance—rebuking them for failing to recognize that genuine believers outside their immediate circle were still doing the work of God. The passage is a warning against creating an exclusive “inner circle” as though only our group has a monopoly on the truth.
It is not promoting Ecumenism. It encourages unity among brethren as it glorifies God.
We must be wary of those who ignore the clear commands of Scripture and appeal instead to obscure or more difficult texts (this not being one of them, though some may not read the context to understand the intended meaning) to justify what God has already condemned. Always let the clear passages interpret the unclear ones. And beware of those who twist Scripture to excuse disobedience, especially when God has plainly revealed what is acceptable to Him and what is not: • “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). • “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
When Jesus said, “If they are not against us, they are for us,” are we really to believe that He was teaching us to unite with heretics and cults for the furtherance of the Gospel? Are we to believe that He meant we should not warn that they preach a different Jesus and another gospel, but instead allow them to freely proclaim their false Christ? Would Jesus ever command His people to participate in the perversion of the Gospel by joining hands with those who lead others after another Jesus?
Is that what He meant when He said, “If they are not against us”?
No—this verse is actually a strong argument for unity among true brethren. It is not promoting Ecumenism. One must forsake the context of the passage and the authors intended meaning to read Ecumenism into this passage.
Scripture calls for believer’s to maintain fellowship with the brethren, Gospel-unity, to maintain the purity of the gospel, to expose error, to be separate from those who cause divisions by bringing in false teachings, and to evangelize the lost.
This passage demonstrates that there is no neutrality: we are either for Him or against Him; there is no gray area. If we are “for Him” then we are truly regenerate and we are united in the true Gospel while we have differences in other matters of doctrine. This passage is showing us unity with the brethren; it is not promoting a false unity with cults, heretical sects, or false religions.
Dear saint, test everything against sound doctrine. Especially when what we want to be true seems to contradict the clear and plain teaching of Scripture, we may be tempted to seek out passages that appear to say what we want them to say in an effort to justify our desires. Always read the entire context, and be careful not to bring your bias to the text or try to conform it to what you want it to mean. Scripture has meaning independent of our beliefs, feelings, or desires. The text says what it says and means what it means. Those texts have meaning—God’s meaning—and we do not have the right to bend them for our purposes.
I think to myself, “I love God’s Word; I love the truth,” but there remains within me an enemy—the law of sin.
A formidable foe it is.
Daily, Christians—by the grace of God—wrestle with this foe within. Without vigilance, one may be deceived into thinking himself better than he is, already conquered by the enemy within.
Misplaced Battles
Many battle the devil and blame him for all their challenges. They battle demons and attribute to them all their mistakes. They battle the words of others contrary to their desires and even use God’s Word as a weapon against reality—a tool to support their own delusion.
They are more concerned with words spoken outwardly than with the ideologies and teachings in their own minds that are enemies of truth. Conquered from within, they fight against those who warn of teachings and doctrines that feed corruption in their hearts and minds. Instead of tearing down strongholds in the mind, they rebuke those who warn them of error and danger.
Their hearts become factories of idols, and their minds are overrun by false teachings and worldly ideologies—all in the name of love and even in the name of God. They fail to recognize the wickedness of their own hearts and win battles that make them feel good about themselves, but these are mere distractions from the real battle within.
As John Owen wrote:
“Be killing sin or it will be killing you. The war within is the greatest and most dangerous of all wars.”
Justification and the Ongoing Battle
Man is justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. While we in Christ are justified and can add nothing to our salvation, we continue to war against the sinfulness that remains in us. We also contend with external influences that seek to enter our hearts and minds and draw us away from the truth.
Romans 7:21-23 reminds us:
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
The Danger of Man-Centered Pulpits
Failure to faithfully exposite the Word in the pulpit—replacing it with man-centered, felt-need, shallow, motivational messages—creates entertainment rather than discipleship. Singing theologically shallow, man-centered songs and producing atmospheres centered on personal experience keeps men focused on self rather than on dying to self and encountering the truth that wages war against the law of sin in the heart of man.
The truth commands man to repent. The truth exposes the sinful heart. It unmasks ideologies and deception in the mind. It does not deliver a soft blow—it confronts the enemy.
Yet far too many in the pulpit fail to deliver the blow. They darken the lights, speak to the flesh what it desires, promise it in God’s name, and affirm the hearer in their felt needs. The enemy within is not conquered—it is affirmed.
As J. C. Ryle observed:
“It is a grievous thing when the pulpit ceases to fight sin, and men are left satisfied with their own delusions and false hopes.”
Conclusion
Not only do men sit and hear powerless versions of the Gospel, but they hear messages that feel powerful—delivered with charisma, entertainment, and emotional appeal—while leaving with their false beliefs and fleshly desires now clothed as God’s will.
The battle within remains unconquered. The Word of God alone is the sword that strikes, exposes, and conquers the enemy in the heart.
We do not judge ourselves correctly or one another apart from sound doctrine. Many gather around Scripture but it is not the straight-edge that corrects our naturally crooked way of thinking. Scripture is used to affirm feelings, and private revelations, to silence “critics” and other such deviations and dangerous mishandlings of God’s Word. It is used to pervert justice, and holiness and to launch false teachers into prominence whereby many are deceived.
We don’t just need teaching; we need sound teaching. We don’t just need pastors; we need Biblically qualified pastors who faithfully exposit the Word. There are qualifiers and not all are qualified. Some, when told they are unqualified, instead of repenting, write books about it (Steven Furtick and his book Unqualified).
When we say that God’s Word is like a straight-edge many who are used to clapping at anything, true or false, will agree. They test nothing. They are not discerning. They are trained to agree with whatever is said and to suppress any thought that dares to be sound in a moment of such excitement. Nothing ruins a euphoric high and lofty view of ourselves like sound doctrine.
When we say that God’s Word is like a straight-edge it is not for claps and shallow amen’s. It is not that God’s Word bends to what we feel or believe or desire to be true. God’s Word is the perfect, immutable standard that judges our thoughts, our desires, and our motives and transforms our way of thinking to what is right, holy, and pleasing to God. It judges us; we do not judge it! It changes us; we do not change it. It conforms us to the will of God; we do not conform it to our supposed private revelations that agree with our sinful desires. It stands firm, unmoving, unyielding, and perfect. It is the standard. It is the truth. It is objective. This gives comfort to the child of God and troubles those in rebellion to God.
“The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.” ~ Elisabeth Elliot
The best conversations about God do not come out of the imaginations of men’s hearts and supposed extra-biblical revelation but out of the More Sure Word of God, which is like a straight edge that corrects our natural bent toward errant thinking and reveals who God is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture.
It is natural for sinful man to be confident in error. He thinks himself wise, basically a good person, and considers the wisdom of God foolish. The Word of God reveals the sinful confidence of man, his errant thinking, his evil inclinations, his corrupt desires, and his hatred toward the God he may even claim to love or know or “be good with”.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
“Through His ministry of inspiration, the Holy Spirit has given us the Word of God. And through His ministry of illumination, He has opened our eyes to understand and submit to biblical truth.” ~ John MacArthur
What does the pastor preach? Many pastors claim that Scripture is sufficient and then claim extra-biblical revelation. He uses Scripture to support what he claims God spoke to him and told him to preach; he rejects in practice what he claims to believe. He claims to believe in the Sufficiency of Scripture while he preaches what he claims is a word from God just for you that has been given to him outside of Scripture. He relies on personal stories, subjective experiences, and manipulative tactics to move you into a decision or get you on board with his vision, or to get you to change your life. He is not relying on the sufficiency of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. He has gone beyond Scripture and trying to lead you to the same end by different means.
Meanwhile, the pastor full of the Holy Spirit and truth, having labored many hours in the Word and prayer, steps to the pulpit with fear, recognizing the immense responsibility and privilege to preach the Word of God. He sets forth the text and expounds the meaning. He stands confident not in himself but in the power of the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. If it were entirely up to him, he may as well go home, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. He doesn’t rely on schemes or manipulative techniques. He trusts in the sufficiency and authority of the Word. He has nothing to say apart from this Word. He trusts in God’s means of grace by which the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men in regeneration and sanctification.
The saints assemble in fellowship, prayer, and worship, in the correct administration of the sacraments, and the Word of God faithfully exposited.
God has not commanded the pastor to preach private revelations, what is in his heart, or the imaginations of his own mind; He has commanded him to preach the Word and trust Him with the results. That’s faith!
Man, in his fallen condition does not need to hear the Word so that he may see where he needs to improve upon his condition. He stands justly condemned before a holy God. Scripture does not command him to come and see how you can be a better you; it commands him to come and die. It commands men everywhere to repent and believe. Scripture, rightly exposited, reveals the perfect holiness of God that leaves men in despair recognizing that they deserve all the Holy and righteous wrath of God. Scripture, rightly exposited, reveals God’s plan of salvation, His grace, and mercy toward sinful man accomplished in the Person and work of Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit.
Any man who trusts in any scheme or plan to reach sinful man apart from rightly proclaiming the Word of God shows himself an enemy of God.
We don’t need pastors who preach to our felt needs, give motivational speeches, or preach the imaginations of their mind; we need pastors who labor in the Word because they not only claim to believe Scripture is Sufficient, but they demonstrate that belief as they set forth God’s Word each week and trust God to do what only He can do.
In our Justified and Progressively Sanctified condition, we must not think so highly of ourselves as to think there does not remain in us a natural bent toward evil and a natural bent toward error. What then straightens our crooked way of thinking, believing, behaving, and living contrary to our Lord? His Word! What now; do we think God sends an evangel to declare His Word by which we may be saved and now we progress in our sanctification by means of extra-biblical revelation? If it is by the means of God’s Word rightly exposited that we hear the Gospel and that we are saved, do we now grow in Grace and knowledge by private revelations? If God has given pastors and His saints His Word by which means the Holy Spirit works in regeneration and sanctification, what then may the enemy attack? The Word of God More Sure!
“Inerrancy is not the most critical issue facing the church today. The most serious issue, I believe, is the Bible’s sufficiency.” ~ James Montgomery Boice
Counterfeits
The enemy offers counterfeits. He offers counterfeit worship, prayer, administration of the sacraments, fellowship, and men who oversee them. There are cults, often more obvious, and there are also men who are dangerously close to the truth, but have a bent toward error. It is less discernable to those who are not faithful to study God’s Word and have their minds changed by the truth.
False teachers take what is beautiful, Holy, and good and they desecrate it. They bring in false doctrines that bring division and then blame those who correct them according to sound doctrine as being divisive and attacking them. False teachers are cunning, coy, manipulative, and very successful in what they do. Their works will stand to condemn them. They heap condemnation on themselves. Their destruction is not asleep.
Many follow the “man of God” in error and some after heretical teachings cloaked in biblical language and just enough truth to deceive many. He promises peace in God’s name where there is no peace. He promises life where the stench of death remains and is repugnant in the anthropomorphic nostrils of God. He heaps up wrath for the day of wrath. He comforts the dead in their sins and promises all their sinful hearts desire. He robs widows’ houses and exploits the poor and they in their desperation give him all they have because he has promised lies in God’s name if they do. He hates the truth. He hates the holiness of God. He offers them a Jesus and a gospel that is powerless to save them and leaves them rotting in their corruption while blind to their own stench of death and boasting in what they claim is theirs and to be theirs though they are delusional and bring reproach on the name of Christ. Their dead hearts are oblivious to their wretched and condemned state and their warped minds are not straightened by God’s Word but are guided in error by the imaginations of their own minds of who they think God is. They remain governed by their sinful passions cloaked in their own righteousness. They do not put to death their sinful desires, they baptize them in biblical language and are worse than they were before. Only now, they do it in God’s name.
How may we be deceived? We naturally follow what appeals to our sinful nature. We are naturally bent toward error. We naturally do not want to hear what corrects us, but rather what agrees with us.
False teachers are not faithful to the preaching of the Word but to preaching what the people want to hear. They may even share the Gospel from time to time such as in spite of them some may be saved. God will bring His own out from among them and to safe pastures. However, these false teachers go from bad to worse. They do not genuinely repent and turn from their egregious error, they conform as they need to, feign humility, and use Christian language so they may offer what people want from God without truly knowing God. They have a god, but it is the god of their imaginations; it is not the God of Scripture.
Life And Peace
False teachers promise life and peace but their doctrine is the wide way to destruction and eternal punishment. They promise now what God has promised when we are glorified. They take descriptive passages where God has done something before and claim that because God has done it before and He can do it again, if you will just believe enough then He will do it for you. They lay burdens on people and make promises on behalf of God that He has not made. They promise what sinful men want and they do it in God’s name. Why would you go where the pastor faithfully exposits the Word every week if the pastor down the street is getting new words from God every week and God has been brought so low that “He gets you” and He just wants to give you all your heart desires? People don’t go to false teachers because they know they are false; they go because they promise all their sinful heart desires and it is done in God’s name. They have a god, but it is not the God of the Bible.
People want peace. They want a good life. They want health, better finances, and success. False teachers promise them these things if they’ll just come ask Jesus in their heart. They walk away with a Jesus, a gospel, and a more positive outlook on life because they believe their Jesus is going to make all their dreams come true, fix their marriage, bless them financially, and heal their bodies. They did not hear the Gospel. They don’t know Jesus. They are worse off now than when they came in.
However, we must not think that all we need is to be under sound teaching and we are safe. It is the most dangerous place to be if we remain enemies of God or walk in rebellion to the truth. We are now accountable for the Word we hear rightly exposited.
What do we mean by “sound” teaching? Sound teaching is teaching that is healthy and life-giving. If Scripture repeatedly points us to sound teaching and warns of false teachers and false teachings, what then is the end result of sitting under such dangerous doctrines? Sound teaching is life-giving; what is the result of false teaching? It promises life but leads to death. It makes us feel good, boosts our confidence, encourages pride disguised as humility, and leads away from the More Sure Word of God. It leads to trust in what one feels is true, believes God wants for them and to pursue what they desire and call it good. It promises peace but opposes anyone who confronts them with sound doctrine. They protect “their peace” at all costs, even at the cost of truth.
God’s Word, rightly exposited exposes our hearts and minds and commands us to repentance and faith and the result of saving faith is a desire for truth and obedience. To the lost soul, he hears the truth that commands him to repent and believe. To every saint, the exposition of that text goes forth and sets straight our crooked way of thinking and living. Sound doctrine produces sound thinking, sound believing, and sound living. It is health and life. It is life and peace no matter what we endure in this world. Things that are alive grow and those who are truly regenerate grow as we hear the life-giving Word of God rightly exposited.
False teachers promise life and health while administering poison that slowly kills and gives only the appearance of life and peace.
Sound doctrine produces life and peace for all who are being saved and who are saved. To those dead in sin it gives a proper diagnosis; they are dead. They are condemned. An evangel proclaims the Gospel of Christ whereby the Holy Spirit works in regeneration. To the regenerate, it—sound doctrine—properly diagnosis the disease of our hearts and minds whereby the Holy Spirit works in sanctifying us, bringing health to our way of thinking, feeling, believing, and living. It is not a medicine to make us better people. It calls us to die to self and life in Christ. It calls us to die to ourselves daily. We need God’s Word every day. It is pride to think we don’t. It is death to trust in anything else.
There is no life and peace apart from Christ. And there is no life and peace in the counterfeit messages of ministers of satan who preach messages that sound good, appeal to the sinful desires of men, and lead many on the broad road to hell.
A More Sure Word
Discernment is not a feeling or impression as so many have been falsely led to believe; it is going to Scripture to see what God’s Word says and means and testing all things according to that perfect standard. Discernment is not “that bears witness in my spirit so it must be true”. Discernment is “let’s take it to the perfect standard, the straight-edge, the authoritative, inerrant, infallible, immutable, sufficient Word of God and see if this is true, good and pleasing to God. If not, Scripture is right and we will have our minds transformed by the truth and submit to this perfect standard”.
If we know we are naturally bent toward error even as born-again children of God, then it ought to be our great desire to hear the More Sure Word of God opened and exposited so we may have our hearts and minds changed by the truth. God’s Word is the straight edge that corrects our perverse, corrupt, sinful, arrogant, boastful, confident in error way of thinking. If we recognize our weaknesses and our sinful inclinations, then we know that we cannot trust whatever we feel in our hearts, our impulses, or whatever pops into our minds but we run to the Word of God and we test everything according to His Word. Our desire is not to be right or be first or be the best, but to know the truth so that we may honor our Lord in what we believe, what we say, how we live, and how we represent Him in all we do.
If I recognize that my way of thinking still has a bent toward evil then as a born-again child of God—adopted into the family of God, justified by faith alone through Grace alone in Christ alone, positionally sanctified and growing in sanctification by God’s means of grace whereby the Holy Spirit works in me—why would I ever trust anything that is less sure than the more sure Word of God? He has saved me from the penalty of sin—justification— and the power of sin—sanctification— and what my heart longs for and is confident in is that He has promised to save me from the very presence of sin—glorification. How then can I trust in any other means than what He has said is more sure?
God has saved me. God has given me His Word. It is enough!
Bible’s open to “the next verse”, hearts prepared to hear what truly “Thus Saith The Lord”, minds engaged, saints gathered with the anticipation that the text will determine the message and use the messenger to teach God’s Word.
It is the gathering of the saints in fellowship, worship, prayer, and the Word.
The calendar simply marked the date and the clock the time to gather, neither determining what ought to be preached.
Mother’s gathered with all other saints. What greater message for her and those she loves to hear than “the next verse”? She didn’t come to hear a message for her, about her, and all praise to her. She knows her greatest need and that of those beside her and all around her and she couldn’t imagine a better message than for God’s Word to be opened and exposited.
Perhaps to the surprise of the visitor, they would not hear a “safe message” that they may determine by the calendar when it is acceptable to attend church because the message will not confront them in their sins but make them feel seen, loved, understood and as if this day is their day and God can have all the other Sundays not already determined by the calendar.
In a little church, growing according to God’s saving grace, His saints gathered today in Sunday School, Bible’s open to “the next verse”. The end of the discussion marked the beginning of prayer one for another. And then, the Word. The Next Verse: the end of the life of King Solomon. The heart of this wise king who the end of his life serves as a great reminder to us all that we examine our own hearts, often. What could a mother learn from this wise king who did not heed the warnings of having so many wives? The same thing widows, singles, young and old, and every other saint may learn.
What might we learn from this wise king who the end of his life stirs up much conversation concerning his eternity? Though he was wise and wisdom is not an enemy, he rejected the warnings that marrying the women he did would turn his heart after other gods and away from wholly serving God. We read that he “loved” his 700 wives. He “clung” to them. As a result, the warnings he ignored proved true, as it is recorded that he turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his God.
These saints, now, having heard the faithful exposition of this text, closed their Bibles but meditating on the reality of the end of the life of such a wise king who later in his life turned his heart after other gods and was not wholly devoted to his God, now picked up their Bibles and proceeded to gather with the saints for corporate worship.
Gathering to sing what may for some encourage the heart to examine itself according to lyrics that almost ask that while they are true, “having heard what you have of this wise king, is it true in your own life when you sing, ‘My soul is satisfied in Him alone’? If it is, praise Him and worship Him with all your heart but if it’s not, sing not a lie, repent, and turn to Him with your whole heart.”
Another song, a sweet reminder of God’s amazing mercy toward wretches like these, in part also examines and comforts:
‘Prone to wander, Lord I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above.’
The prideful heart says, “I could never!” Are the lyrics wrong? Do any of us love God so perfectly that we would never be prone to wander? Is it possible that we may be more honest if we recognized our weakness and because we love God we admit it and boast all the more in His grace? Doctrinally sound lyrics have a way of exposing our hearts, be it pride or be it that we admit our weakness and find God’s grace truly sufficient? Are our hearts prone to wander? Don’t we feel it? What Grace of God to allow us to feel it and to draw our hearts back wholly to the God we love.
Little one’s disperse and some stay playing in their mother’s hair. What now will the message be for all to hear?
Could it be that the hearts of God’s people will now hear a softer message – a message that starts with man? Not so. They will hear, “the next verse”.
All, except visitors, know where to go: the book, the chapter, the verse. Today they would hear 1 Peter 4:12-19.
Is it possible to turn that passage into a message for mothers? Might the pastor feel the pressure to preach a message that visitors came to hear and that will be preached from many pulpits all around him? What drives him to preach what he preaches? Will he allow himself to allow something external to the text to determine what he preaches and when he preaches it (like a calendar)? What if he doesn’t give the people what is expected in many churches all around? Is he now allowing the calendar or the expectations of man to determine what he preaches? Or does this congregation gather around the Word, with the desire to hear the Word faithfully exposited? What did they come to hear?
The message does not begin with man, a calendar, a vision, a dream, or anything external to the text; the man is used to preach God’s Word and it begins with “Thus Saith The Lord” as the text is read.
Were these mothers robbed of their praise? Were they robbed of their moment for recognition? No. God was glorified as every mother and every other saint heard His Word opened and exposited.
Much was unpacked from that text but one might be encouraged to have heard that it is God who tests us and this is FOR the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose so that we may be conformed to the image of His Son. It is the love of God that proves our faith through our suffering. Suffering, though painful for a time, is for the good of God’s children.
At the end of our lives, we cannot say, “I made it!”, we are scarcely saved. If our lives are not marked with suffering then how can we be sure that we belong to God? He has said that we will suffer and that it is His will for His children to endure suffering. The Christian life is not the promise of all our heart’s desire, has not Solomon taught us this much? If we, at the end of our lives believe that our faith has been proven by having accumulated all we desire and how we impressed others by our decreeing and declaring all we wanted in life, then we do not understand faith and we do not understand God’s sovereignty in suffering. According to His great love for us, it is His good will that we suffer, so that the proof of our faith, being more precious than gold may be found to result in praise and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. God allows His children to suffer for Christ so that we may rejoice at the revelation of His glory.
Many look to the end with the desire to leave a name or a legacy for themselves. How much better is God’s Word that says that by His preserving us to the end it may result in the praise of His glory? May it end as it began, by Him and for His glory. What worship we may sing when at the end of our lives we may sing praise to our King that though many times our hearts may fail, He will not lose one of His?
Today many saints gathered under Topical Sermons that preached Mother’s Day messages, some faithful to exegete the text and others unfaithful to the text. Nevertheless, the calendar determined the message. Some will argue that it ought not be so and others argue that there’s nothing wrong with it. Where you stand may be based on bias rather than firm Biblical conviction. Whether you heard your 1st or 50th Mother’s Day message or if you heard “The Next Verse”, was the text faithfully exposited? What danger might there be in allowing the calendar or what the people want and expect and not God’s Word to determine what will be preached the next week? How might it benefit the body to know where in the text, they will be next week? What danger might there be in that which is external to the text driving the message?
Have you ever considered the difference in Expository Preaching and Topical Preaching?
Leaving Beyond - Grounded In Scripture 