Title: A False Preachers Ways
Text: Jeremiah 6: 13-17
Date: January 17, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Jeremiah 5: 30: A wonderful and horrible
thing is committed in the land; 31: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the
priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what
will ye do in the end thereof?
False
preachers were lying to the people about God and salvation, ruling by their
means rather than God’s way of simply declaring the truth of his word. And a
horrible thing was happening with the people as well, “and my people love to
have it so.” That same horrible thing is
happening in our day.
Brethren,
if there were an evil physician in town, whose practices harmed rather than
healed, I would warn you. And you would
think me unkind if I didn’t. But an evil
physician would not even be half as bad as the evil of a false preacher.
So I
want you to be warned, to be able to detect a false preacher, or be able to
detect when a true preacher has proven himself a false preacher.
Subject:
A False Preachers Ways.
Our
text shows us 5 ways of a false preacher.
Divisions: 1)
They are given to covetousness—Jeremiah
6: 13: For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is
given to covetousness; 2) They deal falsely—v13: and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth
falsely. 3) They tell the people they have peace when they don’t—14: They have healed also the hurt of the
daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 4)
They are not ashamed of their abomination--15:
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at
all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them
that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the
LORD. 5) They will not heed any exhortation to return to the old paths—16: Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the
ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein. 17: Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the
trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
Proposition: A false preacher and those who follow him serve self and
their own interests, not God and not God’s people.
I. FALSE PREACHERS ARE GIVEN TO COVETOUSNESS—Jeremiah
6: 13: For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is
given to covetousness;
Least to Greatest
A
preacher will put on his false humility—“oh I just preach to a small
congregation, oh I’m not educated, oh, I don’t have anything”—but covetousness
is from the least to greatest. This is is not just preachers in mega churches, but
also preachers in little country churches, too.
Given to Covetousness
The
problem is that false preachers are “given to covetousness.” They covet the
praise of men. Many believed on Christ
among the chief rulers, “but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him
lest they should be put out of the synagogue for they love the praise of men,
more than the praise of God.” (John 12: 43)
They covet honor—to sit in the chief seats and to be acknowledged by
men—to be regarded as a wise old preacher or believer. (Matthew 23: 6-10) But chiefly, they covet money. A man will see religion growing quickly and his
congregation not doing so. Or his
congregation begins to diminish. Or he runs the risk of having his financial
support cut off and it is amazing, at that very moment, is when he will
reexamine his doctrine and change it. God says if you want to find the root of
the problem follow the money.
Romans 16: 17: Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them
which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have
learned and avoid them for they are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but
their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the
simple.
2 Peter 2: 3: And through covetousness shall they with feign
words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not
and their damnation slumbereth not.
1 Timothy 6: 3: If any man teach otherwise, and consent
not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness; 4: He is proud, knowing nothing, but
doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife,
railings, evil surmisings, 5: Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw
thyself. 6: But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7: For we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8: And
having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9: But they that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10: For the love of money is the
root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the
faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and
follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12: Fight
the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also
called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Application: Our recompense, like all our spiritual blessings, is given
to us from God as we behold the glory of Christ. Christ
said in Luke 14: 13: But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind: 14: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense
thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Our
recompense in the day God converts a sinner, in the day the Lord lifts a man
during trials, like the resurrection of the just is that Christ did it! “Not by might, nor by power, but by my
spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zech 4: 6)
II. FALSE PREACHERS DEAL FALSELY—Jeremiah 6: 13:…and from the
prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
They deal
falsely in many ways, but chiefly with the word of God.
Isaiah 8:20: To the law and to the testimony: if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light
in them.
This
book says in Adam all died.
Romans 5: 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned:
Psalm 51: 5: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin
did my mother conceive me.
Psalm 58:3: The wicked are estranged from the womb: they
go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Sinners
are dead in a two-fold way: Judicially
in Righteousness: we have broken the law, we are guilty, we are under the curse
and condemnation of the broken law. We
must have our guilt put away, be justified, made the righteousness of God. Spiritually in Holiness: we are conceived of
incorruptible seed so that “by nature we are the children of wrath even as
others.” Every elect child of God must born-again of incorruptible Seed and be
taught of God inwardly to cast our care upon Christ. It is by the obedience of Christ—that both
are accomplished
Judicially our Righteousness is Christ
The
book says Christ was formed in the womb of the virgin of the Holy Ghost:
perfect human nature, together with perfect divine nature. So he was holy from
his mother’s womb. False teachers deny God came in human flesh.
The
book says Christ was examined through his whole life—like the lamb to be
offered was examined: tempted of Satan, judged of men and testified by God to
be holy, just, spotless, without sin. So
he was fit to be that spotless Lamb of God.
The Just—willingly gave
himself to die—for the unjust.
Now the
whole purpose for which Christ came according to the book is that God set him forth
to manifest the righteousness of God, to declare how God can be just and the
Justifier of his elect people.
For God
to remain just in punishing Christ, in place of his elect people, Christ first had
to be made sin for us. So “the LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all.”—all the elect of God (Is 53: 6) and the
elect of God only.
2
Corinthians 5: 21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
1 Peter 2:24
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we,
being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were
healed.
Galatians 3:13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree:Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us.
Isaiah 53:12: Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because
he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the
transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors.
Having been made sin in place of his people, God was just
to pour out wrath upon him. On the cross Christ bore the judgment and
punishment of hell for his people described in 2 Thessalonians 1: 6-10:
Christ
bore “righteous tribulation” so now those he represented must be given the mercy
of God for righteousness demands it.
Christ
bore just “vengeance” so now justice demands his people must be acquitted of
all transgressions—they have been and must be in the court of conscious and shall
be at the day of judgment.
Christ
bore “everlasting destruction” but offering himself through the eternal Spirit,
Christ condemned the second death, making the worm that never dies to die. So now
his people have paid the wages of sin which is death and must may be given eternal
life.
Christ
was cut off “from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.” He cried, “My God, My God why hast thou
forsaken me?” But by his being forsaken
he assures his people, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We are saved
by his presence and kept by the glory of his power.
The
mystery of the cross is not that God poured out judgment upon one who was
innocent—though the iniquity was no act of his own. The mystery of the cross is that Christ who
knew no sin, willingly submitted to the LORD who laid the iniquity of his
children upon Christ, making him sin, so that God was just to pour out wrath
upon Christ.
The
mystery of the cross is that while he was the scapegoat bearing our sins away
to a land not inhabited, while he was the sin offering dying that second death
in place of his people all in just judgement, at the same time in his heart, in
his soul, as he laid aside his glorious garments, with the linen garments of a
holy and pure faith our High Priest entered the holy place saying, “but thou
art holy” and “I am worm and no man”, “who
when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatned not; but
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” (Ps 22: 3, 6; 1 Pet 2: 23)
And by
his own blood, he has justified all for whom he died. He accomplished atonement for his people. “By
one offereing, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” He is our propitiation through faith in his
blood. (Heb 10: 14; Rom 3: 25)
Therein
is the righteousness of God revealed.
All our hope, brethren, is that the judge of the all the earth shall do
right! If God punished Christ before
making him sin for his elect then the whole purpose of declaring the
righteousness of God is made void. If
God punishes again one sinner for whom Christ died then God is unjust. But the just Judge does right! Beholding Christ on the cross we are assured
he will do righteously to us.
The
false preacher deals falsely in some way with the righteousness of God manifest
in Christ on the cross.
Spiritually Christ is our Holiness
God’s
elect also have to be born again because we are born the first time spiritually
dead in trespasses and in sins: we have to be saved spiritually being made
holy, as well as being made righteous judicially.
John 3: 3: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God….6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit.
When we
are born of the Holy Spirit then the believer is made up of flesh and spirit—“that
which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Paul
said, “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” And he said, “I delight in the law
of God after the inward man.” (Rom 7:
18, 22) In every believer there is an old man and a new man, a body of death
and spiritual life, an old nature and the divine nature we are made partakers
of when Christ enters into our bodies. (2 Pet 1: 4)
Romans 8: 8: So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. 9: But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his. 10: And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5: 17: Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new.
That
new creature is the inward man created anew by the Holy Spirit when of God ye
are in Christ and when of God Christ is made all unto you. As Christ said, it is “you in Christ and
Christ in you.” (John 15: 4, 5) We see it plainly in Colossians 3.
Colossians 3: 9: Lie not one to another, seeing that ye
have put off the old man with his deeds; [that is, the fleshly man of our first
birth] 10: And have put on the new man, [the spiritual, newly born man, born of
the Spirit] which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him: [Christ is not the new man spoken of here for Christ was not renewed in
knowledge—but rather it is the newly born-again man within the believer which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ who created him] 11: Where there
is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Ephesians 4: 22: That ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23:
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness.
Like
begets like so the old man is corrupt like our first father but the new man is
created in righteousness and true holiness like our heavenly Father. But the false prophet deals falsely with the
necessity of Christ’s people being born of the Spirit of Christ and created in
righteousness and true holiness.
The False Preacher Deals Falsely
False
preachers deny man’s total depravity.
They deny that God elected unto salvation those that will be saved. He deals falsely by denying that Christ died
for the elect of God only and that in Christ the righteousness of God is
manifest. A false preacher denies the
necessity of being born of the Spirit of God, he denies God must create a man
anew, he denies the truth that holy God will not have fellowship with anyone
but one who is made holy. God gets all the glory for making his people holy. And the false preacher deals falsely by denying
that the believer is kept by the power of God, grown in grace by the Spirit of
God and that the fleshly man profits nothing.
Yet,
the false prophet’s false dealing is not because he really cares one way or the
other about the glory of God or the good of God’s saints. It is because he is covetous. Whosoever will support him most, to them he
will preach exactly what they want to hear!—“For from the least of them even
unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the
prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.”
III. THEY TELL THE PEOPLE THEY HAVE PEACE
WHEN THEY DO NOT—Jeremiah 6: 14: They have healed also the hurt of the daughter
of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Illustration: Brother Rolph Barnard at a meeting in 1951:
“The only person who will try to convince a lost man that he is saved, is
another lost man.”
False preachers try to convince lost sinners
they are saved.
They
give a sinner things to pray, the sinner prays it, they tell them their saved;
they give the sinner things to do, the sinner does, they say, “saved.” “They
have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace,
peace; when there is no peace.”
Sinner, how can you know you are lost!
Everybody
is talking about how to know you are saved—you first have to be lost! Sinner,
how can you know you are lost!
First, God
shows a sinner that he has committed sins transgressing the law of God. Have you been brought to see that you have
broken the whole law of God?
Secondly,
God shows a sinner he is sin. Original sin, the heart, the nature is sin: true
repentance is to repent from what you are.
Thirdly,
God shows a sinner that his best works are evil. A sinner may acknowledge he has sinned, even
that he is sin, but then he starts trying to cover himself with good deeds like
Adam did with his fig leaves. When Adam
saw his sin, he got dressed up in his Sunday’s best and went to church. But when holy God enters in he makes us to
see my so-called holiness and righteousness, my best prayer, my best benevolent
deeds, all are just filthy rags.
Fourthly,
God makes him see his greatest sin of all is unbelief. It was not the murmuring, or the golden calf,
for which Israel could not enter into the promised rest, it was unbelief. “When
the Spirit is come he will convince the world of sin because they believe not
on me.” (John 16: 8, 9) Before a man has true peace, he has got to be
convicted of his unbelief.
Lastly,
God makes us willing to cast all his care into the hands of Christ Jesus. Faith
is not merely believing there is a God.
The devils believe and tremble. (James
2: 19) True faith is knowing WHOM I have believed, true faith is being persuaded
HE IS ABLE to keep all and true faith is committing all to HIM.
2 Timothy 1: 12: I know whom I have believed and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day.”
Job 13: 15: Though he slay me, yet I will trust him.
Did your peace come from God or from you?
Peace
was thought by God when he elected a people unto salvation in Christ,
determining the end from the beginning.
Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an
expected end.
Peace
was wrought by Christ and is brought to his own by Christ.
John 14:27: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
God the
Holy Spirit, not flesh, gives peace.
John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life….
Peace from
anywhere else is a false peace. The false preacher says peace where there is no
peace.
IV. THE FALSE PREACHER IS NOT ASHAMED OF THE
ABOMINATION THEY COMMIT—Jeremiah 6: 15: Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they
blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit
them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Judicial Blindness
This
hardness of heart is a description of judicial blindness by God. When they get caught or when trying to take
over a church or fool men, they may cry big ole crocodile tears and convince
some they have repented. But then when they
go on making merchandise of men’s souls, dealing falsely with God’s word, dividing
and
conquering they prove, “nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they
blush.”
Blind Leading the Blind
God
says that when the blind lead the blind they shall both fall into the ditch—“therefore
they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall
be cast down, saith the LORD.”
Matthew 15:14: Let them alone: they be blind leaders of
the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
V. THEY WILL NOT HEED THE EXHORTATION TO WALK
IN THE OLD PATHS—NOT FROM THE LORD OR FROM HIS PREACHERS—Jeremiah 6: 16: Thus
saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where
is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But
they said, We will not walk therein. 17: Also I set watchmen over you, saying,
Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
Leave Them Alone
We want to give men the benefit of the doubt. We are not to be hasty to make a man an
offender for a word. We are to be longsuffering.
But the Spirit of God tells us that if a man insists on striving about his
false doctrine leave him alone.
Titus
3: 9: But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and
strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10: A man that is
an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; 11: Knowing that he
that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
What Constitutes An Heretic?
An
heretic forms an opinion contrary to the scriptures based on vain reasons such
as covetousness (and/or) he takes away a fundamental doctrine of Christ (and/or)
receives damnable heresy. And he obstinately
persists in it, separating from brethren, forming his own party, creating
divisions among brethren.
Titus 3: 10: A man that is an heretick after the first
and second admonition reject; 11: Knowing that he that is such is subverted,
and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
It is
not your place to reach out to such a one, it is his place to reach out to you!
He left, you didn’t. His love grew cold,
not yours. He separated from you, not you from him. He changed his doctrine, not you.
So we have
seen: 1) False preachers are covetous 2) They use the word of God falsely 3) They
speak peace where there is none. 4) They are not ashamed of this abomination 5)
They will not hear God or his messengers and return to the old paths. Now brethren, we are given these
descriptions in scripture so that as our Lord Jesus tells us,
Matthew 7:15. 15: Beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Amen!