“The Biblical Response to False Teachers”
April 2013
A writing ministry of Legacy Baptist Church
I was thinking about our discussion Wednesday night regarding the church’s prescribed response to
false teachers….and I wanted to reaffirm a few points with you today. It’s a critically important
issue, and one that I’m very glad the Lord raised among us during our meeting. Exactly how are we
to respond to false teachers? What is the Biblical response to those who falsely profess Christianity
in order to sow their error among us?
JC Ryle, that great preacher of the 1800’s, once stated: “Nothing supplies false prophets with
followers so much as spiritual sloth under a cloak of humility.” What he meant by that statement, of
course, is that apathy toward knowing the word of God (sloth) and an unwillingness to confront the
error of false teachers (cloak of humility) are two features in the visible church today that are quickly
feeding the ranks of apostasy.
Now, the primitive believers of the early church would have agreed whole-heartedly with Mr. Ryle;
particular our writers of the New Testament. Jude, for example, is vehement that disciples of Christ
“contend earnestly for the faith”…against the influence of false teachers whom he describes very
vividly as “creepers….marked out for condemnation” (v4). He goes on in verse 4 to describe them as
“sin-loving Christ-deniers”. In fact, between verses 4-11 of his epistle, Jude sets forth a summary
description of false teachers as those who are godless, fearless, selfish, worldly-minded, animalistic,
unregenerate faction-makers who are devoid of spiritual life. But he doesn’t stop there. Jude goes
on to describe them as those who love to infiltrate the church and pretentiously participate with the
people of God in our most intimate gatherings (v12). “These are - he says - men who are hidden reefs
among us.” There’s certainly no cloak of humility in Jude’s language -- and what a descriptive
characterization he sets forth of these false teachers. He calls them “hidden reefs” because he
understood that the true intent of false teachers was to rip open a few soft Christian hulls by
leavening our doctrine, and leading the flock toward ever-sinking defection away from the truth.
Now, keep in mind this is a description of false teachers given by…who? By the Holy Spirit through
Jude writing under the divine inspiration. Pretty heavy, don’t you think? And in this capacity, Jude
doesn’t waste a moment to condemn false teachers; a response that, by today’s saccharine
standards sounds almost unchristian, doesn’t it? “Contend for the faith”, he says, “…because these
hucksters have been marked out for condemnation.” In other words to confront them is to agree
with, and to participate in, the judgment of God already upon them. Like I said – pretty heavy stuff.
Now, I don’t know if the Apostle Paul ever had an opportunity to read Jude’s epistle or not, but if he
did, I can imagine that Paul would have muttered “Amen, Jude!” because he and Jude were very
obviously agreed in the matter concerning false teachers. In fact, in Acts 20 Paul (upon his departure
from Ephesus) took an opportunity to gather the elders of the church of Ephesus to warn them of a
few things. He said: “Be on guard for the flock…shepherd the church of God which He purchased
with His own blood” [by the way, in the Greek this phrase is rendered “with the blood of His own
One.”]. Paul then goes on to say, “I know after my departure savage wolves will come in among you,
not sparing the flock.”
Are you familiar with the method wolves use to kill their prey? I studied up on this a bit this morning
in order to get an appreciation for Paul’s imagery here. I learned that Wolves, like most predators,
are always looking for signs in their environment that suggest that prey animals might be in their
vicinity. And once they’ve spotted a herd of prey, they’ll approach it very patiently; VERY slowly and
cautiously because they want to study the condition of the herd, you see. They’re very quiet – very
stealthy creatures, because if the herd picks up on the scent of the wolves before the wolves can
coordinate their attack, then the herd will either run away or try to defend themselves.
Now, if the wolves are successful in being undetected, they’ll approach as close as possible to the
herd, and then at the right moment they’ll suddenly launch a massive all-out attack. They do this “en
masse” for the purpose of provoking a stampede which would serve to expose the weak, vulnerable,
and young members of the herd. And once a promising target has been locked, it will be attacked in
full force by the entire wolf pack. The cause of death is gruesome…..usually the result of massive
blood loss, shock or both. By the way, very rarely will wolves snap the neck of herd prey. Instead,
the wolves will immediately start to devour the animal alive the moment they come upon it. What
ensues is a vicious and gruesome feeding frenzy.
Now this imagery of wolves would have been something very familiar to most early believers…and
certainly was familiar imagery to these elders of Ephesus as they listened to the Paul’s warnings.
Paul says in essence in verse 29 of Chapter 20: “Look savage wolves are already on the trail; they’re
already inbound, men; they’re already observing the condition of the herd in order to tear and pillage
and devour the flock.” Notice he calls them not just wolves, but “savage wolves”. Fierce and
ferocious is the force of the word. He goes on to say in verse 30 that these wolves will, shockingly
enough, arise from….where? That’s right… “...from among your own selves”. And what exactly is
their intent? Paul says to “speak perverse things in order to draw away the disciples [believers] after
them.” In other words, to draw the sheep away to the slaughter of their feeding frenzy.
Now of course…these wolves don’t go by the name “Mr. Wolf”, do they? No. They’ll go by the name
of “Pastor so-and so –MDiv”. They sometimes have marquise names like “Rick Warren” or “Joel
Osteen” (and that list is growing). They know better than to go by the name “Mr. Wolf” otherwise
the sheep would see them coming and successfully escape, right? So they don’t come bearing the
name Mr. Wolf – they come as “ministers of righteousness” as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11.
Listen….I don’t care how many books a man has written, how many abbreviations follow his name,
or how large his ministry is. I don’t care how esteemed he may be by some of the sheep. If he
doesn’t preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ purely -- if the gospel he preaches does not accord
with the word of God, then he is a wolf…..a hidden reef….and he will not spare the flock “purchased
with the blood of God’s own One”. He’s an enemy of the cross of Christ…and therefore no friend of
Christ’s sheep. That means to say that the doctrine of the Catholic Church is not the friend of Christ,
the Mormons are not the friend of Christ, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not the friend of Christ. Paul
says, their doctrine renders them enemies…and that, ultimately, “their end is destruction”
(Philippians 3:19).
So let me ask you…..how are we to respond to false teachers who would endeavor to stalk and prey
upon the sheep of God’s flock? Well I submit to you that there ought to be a righteous anger that
courses trough us toward them and their insidious agenda, and that with the full authority of the
word of God we should confront these assassins openly acknowledging them as nothing more than
false teachers who spread damnable lies….and therefore are future recipients of the horrific
consequences to their folly when the Lord God balances the scales in the matter. Take a close look
at Christendom today – the gross ecumenism, gross universalism, gross legalism, gross mysticism,
gross doctrinal and moral error. It’s not difficult to discern that that the church is careening, fathom
after fathom, down the path of apostasy. And make no mistake, Christian, that path abruptly ends in
divine judgment.
Better yet, forget my suggested response. How would have the Apostle Paul instructed us regarding
confronting false teachers? Well…praise God, we don’t have to wonder about that because
Scripture records Paul’s counsel toward the church of God in the matter. In Titus 1:13 Paul says “You
better reprove them severely”. Do you know what “reprove severely” meant in the Apostle Paul’s
ministry? It meant reprimand them without reservation and without remorse. Do not have any
sense of hesitation in the matter.
Does that sound unchristian to you? Listen to me: It is not unchristian to oppose false teachers. But
it is entirely unchristian NOT to oppose it. The Lord Jesus Himself scolded the Church at Pegamum
(Rev 2) for their tolerance of the heretical Nicolaitan doctrine held by some of them. And our Lord’s
reprimand to that church was “Repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war
against them with the sword of My mouth.” You see? So Paul says in Titus 1:13 “Shut them down.” In
verse 11 he says “Their mouths must be stopped” because they were disrupting entire households
with their teaching.
Now, I want us to consider this carefully because there is a widening sentiment that this kind of
response is unloving. Well, quite the contrary….there’s no greater love shown to the Lord Jesus
Christ then when we endeavor to zealously, and aggressively, and righteously protect the church
from false doctrine. In fact, we haven’t even explored the full depth of Paul’s sentiment in Titus 1: 11,
for when he says "Whose mouths must be stopped", he’s actually giving the imagery of a muzzle
similar to what you put on a dog’s mouth…..because that is precisely what false teachers are – they
are “dogs”….as Paul refers to them in Philippians 3:2….and what they need is a good, sharp
muzzling. They literally need to be gagged and shown to the door.
I can tell you this, my Christian friend, if the church…even just 200 years ago…would have been
more courageous to do what Paul has just prescribed we would have a purer church today. It is
when Legacy, or any local church fails to exercise sharp, swift discipline….and fails to hold resolutely
to a clear doctrinal standard…that error gains a seat in the church. And it will permeate like leaven
until it infects every congregation of God.
As I exhorted you dear saints on Sunday, doctrinal apostasy is tragic…but it is not the great tragedy
of the church. We’ll always have doctrinal apostates among us….that can’t be avoided. The great
tragedy of the church is that these apostates once discovered have not been dealt with severely as
they should. They’ve not been muzzled and put out, and so their error spread like a disease until the
whole BODY is under its influence.