Thank you for reading the Weekend Sermon. I hope that all of you are having a very good week. I am thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to post this message.
This has been a good week for me. The Lord answered my prayer, and my brother was able to get my lawnmower fixed. I've had a good week in writing, and I found out that I will be getting a few more hours at my part-time job. Thank you Lord.
As we go to prayer this week, please pray for those who are in the path of the storm in Louisiana and the Gulf states. Pray that no one will be injured.
Please continue to pray for those who have experienced damage from the storms and the flooding in the US. Pray for those recovering from the earthquake damage in California, and pray for those in Mozambique who are still recovering from the storms there.
Let us all pray about the situation at the border with Mexico. I am very upset about all of this. Pray that children separated from their parents and family will be returned to their families. Please pray that the people will be housed in better circumstances and given proper treatment. Pray that conditions will improve in the countries that the migrants have come from so that others don't have to attempt to leave.
Please pray for an end to the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda. Pray for those who are trying to help.
Please continue to pray for peace in this world. Somalia needs our prayers today. Pray for peace in Libya, Syria and Yemen. Pray for peace wherever you know there is war.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Turkey and Eritrea. Pray that many will hear about the Lord Jesus and His love and grace.
Today, we will conclude our series about false teachings in the early church. I want us to focus our attention today on three passages of Scripture that tells us about the fact that there will be those who try to introduce erroneous ideas into the church.
First of all, let's look at the book of Jude. Jude is a one chapter book in the Bible that is all about false teachers. Jude 3-4 states, "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ as our only Sovereign and Lord."
Jude is telling us that even in his time, false teachers were trying to turn people away from the truth. He wanted the people that he was writing to to contend for the faith. That means that he wanted those in the church to be on guard against error. If they did encounter erroneous and false teaching, Jude wanted them to speak up. He did not want false beliefs to get a foot hold within the church.
Sometimes, we act as if doctrine is not important. It certainly was important as far as the writers of the New Testament were concerned. It should be important to us too. It does matter what we believe. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it.
The way that we will be able to know what is the truth and what is error is if we are so familiar with the truth that we can spot erroneous doctrine right away. We will know the truth when we have a thorough knowledge of the Word of God.
Jude makes clear that the primary way to recognize what is false is that false teachers do not teach the moral and ethical code of the New Testament. The false teachers will deny Jesus. They will deny who He is and what He accomplished through His death and resurrection.
In Acts 20, Paul will warn that false teachers don't always come from outside of the church. He warned the leaders of the church at Ephesus that false teachers would arise from their own number. Paul wanted the leaders of the church to be diligent in teaching what is the truth about Jesus.
Jesus Himself told us about false teachers in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:15, Jesus tells us to watch out for false prophets. According to Jesus, they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Jesus tells us that not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus tells us in this passage how to recognize false prophets and false teachers. Jesus said that we will know them by their fruits. Those who follow the true way of Jesus will produce fruits of love and righteousness. Jesus also said that those who are true to Him are the one's that do the will of the Father in Heaven. The true teacher is the one who lives a life in obedience to the will and teachings of the Lord Jesus.
With these things said, I don't want you to think that I am advocating that all Christians have to believe exactly the same thing about every issue of doctrine. However, there are certain major areas of belief that identify orthodox Christian teachings. We know what these are by the great creeds of the church. The Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed identify the orthodox teachings of the church.
In the early part of 2016, I posted a number of messages on the Apostle's Creed here on the blog. I invite you to read these if you would like to know more of what the Creed is about.
I urge you to study the doctrines of the church. Study the Bible diligently everyday so that you will never be led astray by any false teaching. In all things, we are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We are to look to Him in all things, and we are to follow His way and teachings in all areas of our lives.
Next week, I will post the sermon on Saturday. I will be starting a very short series about the book of Lamentations in the Old Testament. This is not something I would have chosen on my own. I believe that the Lord placed this on my heart. On Monday, I will post the verses for the week. I will post a review or a poem on Wednesday. May God bless you all. Amen.
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