Signs & Motives of False Teachers - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

If you have your Bibles, meet me in the sixth chapter of the book of first Timothy. As we continue in our series in this book, we are drawing close to the end. And if you're there, meet me at verse three. And we're gonna pray one more time and ask the Lord Jesus to help us with his word. First Timothy six verse three.

Father, we are humbled before you. We are humbled to be before your word. We revere it. We fear it. We tremble before it.

We ask God that if we become callous to this word, if we become dry, indifferent, then you would smash every lie this morning, and that you would resurrect a new love for this word. Help us understand what you have to say. Help us believe that it is for us today. Help us Lord to have ears that will really hear. We wanna hear what the Spirit has to say.

Lord, we ask that the effectiveness of this message would not depend upon eloquence, upon gifting, but solely upon the power of the Holy Spirit. For the sake of the exaltation of the name of Jesus Christ. For the sake of his glory and his praise, and for the love of his people to be drawn out toward him. And so Lord, for the sake of your glory alone, not for personal gain, not for the sake of satisfying religious routine, but for the sake of his glory, Lord, come and visit us through the word of God driven deeply into our souls. And so, Lord, let every man disappear and let the word of God dominate.

Dominate the atmosphere and our attention. Oh, God, be exalted in this place. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You and I have heard countless times how the church of Jesus Christ is likened to many things and one of the strongest pictures is the church being the body of Jesus Christ.

The body of Jesus Christ. Now, for the corporate gathering of the people of God to be referred to as a body implies many things. It affects the way we relate to God surely, Christ being the head of this body, but it even affects the way we relate to one another as members of the same body. And without dragging this metaphor too far, I would like to say that just like our bodies, the body of Christ is in need of protecting itself from dangers just like you do on a daily basis. What I mean by that is, just like your body is vulnerable to diseases, and sicknesses, and illnesses, so it is with the body of Jesus Christ.

And since the inception of the church, one of Satan's main tactics is to infect the body of Christ with false teachings. For what purpose? For will for the same purpose that the effects of sickness brings to your body to to weaken you, to paralyze you, to dismember you, and ultimately with the motive to destroy you and me. And throughout the ages, the church, the true church has been fighting off spiritual viruses for the sake and with the ambition to have a pure and strong devotion to the Lord and a witness to a dying world. But here's what we have to understand, until Jesus Christ returns, Satan's strategy will not change.

He will try to come from any angle to try to debilitate God's people with falsehood. And it is our duty as a church to be healthy, whole and aware of these dangers. And that's exactly why Paul speaks about this particular danger to pastor Timothy as we read in verse three of first Timothy six. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicious, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Imagining that godliness is a means of gain. You may not today sense the danger of what false teaching can bring about in your life or the life of this particular community, But that does not mean that as a people, we should not prepare for that potential risk and that potential attack. Additionally, being equipped with what we just heard here may not help us now, but it will definitely in some cases, help others who are entrapped by false teaching and who need to be rescued by the only thing that can set them free and that's truth. And I want us to see at least three things from these verses that we just read. Paul's not speaking about a particular false teacher or specific heresy.

He's speaking about this subject generally. And the reason why is because there are general principles that help us identify and see the dangers or at least the reasons for false teaching in our day. And so listen to these three things. We're going to hear about the marks of a faulty false teacher. Secondly, the fruits of a false teacher.

And thirdly, the motive of a false teacher. Here are the marks of a false teacher. As you heard in verse three, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want evidence, the plainest evidence that somebody is operating in a false spirit, teaching a false message, it is plain and simple. They do not regard the authority based on the scriptures for their beliefs.

That is the most obvious sign. God has given humanity one way to heaven, and Satan has taken liberty to offer million different paths to hell. And over the ages, I want you to think about the different anti christian world religious systems that have gained such followings over the generations. What do they have in common, although they have their unique colors? I believe it's this, they all attack the authenticity, authority, sufficiency, and integrity of the scriptures.

All of them. You think about the Mormons and what do they say? Well, they have their own book and the reason for that additional book is because the Bible lacks complete revelation. Ask them. That's why they have it.

That's why they have the Book of Mormon so close to the scriptures. You talk to Job as witnesses, and what do they say? Well, all Bible translations are corrupted. And so we we we have come up with our own, the new world translation, which is the closest things to the devil's bible I think. And the Muslims will echo that sentiment and they might admit that at one point the gospel and the Torah were pure, but throughout the ages it has been tampered with.

And so it is no longer the word of God. And you've probably heard it in different ways. The arguments, well, you Christians, you have so many different translations. You have so many different versions. Our group, we only have one.

One translation. One version throughout the years. Or look at your book, it's filled with contradictions, and and they attempt to point things out while they boast that they are flawless in their literature. Or how about the attack of the arrogance to say that this book is the only source of divine truth and we need additionally this or that etcetera. False teachers do not regard this as a sole authority for divine revelation.

How has that happened over the years? How is it that we have millions of people holding to different fates so confidently? And the answer is very simple. Revelation twelve nine tells us that Satan, that ancient serpent, the great dragon is a deceiver of the whole world. Deceiver of the whole world.

Now think about the implications of that. All of us in here are probably capable of deceiving one person. Now if somebody was able to deceive a whole group of people like a church like this, you might be able to label him as a dangerous individual. But what about somebody who's deceived the nations throughout the centuries? What do you call such a person?

Surely, it's someone who is a sophisticated con artist that is operating with supernatural power and that's exactly the fruit of all these false teachers and teachings. He is deceived. His strategy from the beginning was to make you doubt God's word and his strategy until the end. The grandest scheme that we will see in this history is deception waving over the nations during the tribulation period. It's always been deception and it will end with deception.

That is his main weapon. What's amazing is although deception is rampant, it will remain rampant, it will never slip by God's sovereignty. Meaning, even Satan seeming to be so successful with his deception, God will be able to use his deception for his own purposes. I want you to turn to a scripture that's quite terrifying. It's in second Thessalonians chapter two verse nine.

In second Thessalonians two nine, we read, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Here's what Paul is talking about. There's a day coming where there will be the crescendo of Satan's deception, and he will energize an individual known as the Antichrist. And this Antichrist will come with powerful miraculous abilities, and he will sweep the nations to adore him and even worship him as Satan convinces people through him that he is the true Messiah, that he is the true savior of the world. And what we see here is that, through this man's deception, there will be a false religious system.

But notice here in verse 11, therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false. So we look at the success of these false religious systems. But notice also that in part of the success, at least in the future, will be God giving people over to those lies. God allowing individuals and groups of people to believe what is false and that might cause us to gasp. Do we not read that God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth?

Absolutely. But we cannot read this with a false understanding of his motive. God is not doing this arbitrarily. God is not doing this because of some mysterious hidden motive. We are being told why God is going to do this.

What do we read in verse 10? Because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. And then secondly, in verse 12, in order after we are told that God will send a strong delusion for them to believe what is false, In order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Two reasons why God, listen to this, will allow people to be deceived. Number one, we're told that this audience that will be under this kind of judgment have already been exposed to the truth.

They've heard the truth, they've understood the truth, but they refuse to love it. They refuse to submit to it. They refuse to accept it and embrace it. So we're not talking about people that have not heard the truth. This is God's response to their lack of response to the truth.

And it's closely connected to the second reason, because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. Translation, they love their sin. And they know that if I love truth, I must hate sin. And because I don't hate my sin, I rather believe a lie that will cause me to stay in my sin than repent of my sin. You know what God will do one day?

You want it? Take it. You don't want the truth? Then I'll give you a lie. And you'll have people that will not believe in something other than the gospel because they're convinced that it's true and this is not.

There will be people who will believe other things because they know this is true, and they don't want the truth. They want their sin. And so they will gladly embrace something that they might even know is false so that they can remain in darkness where they're comfortable. You know, I read this and I understand that this is speaking about a future event, but it tells me something about deception. You wanna escape deception?

I wanna ask if anybody in here likes being deceived. I'm sure not one person would lift their hand and say, you know, I kinda I like the sensation. Not one person in this place in their right mind would say, you know, I enjoy being deceived. You wanna be protected from deception? The mass deception today, the deception that's coming, and perhaps even the deception that will be accompanied by false signs and wonders.

I learned something from this verse. Love the truth. Love it. Cherish it. Embrace it.

Cling to it. Adore it. Run to it. And when God sees your heart postured in such a way toward truth, he will be faithful to keep you from being deceived. Now loving the truth is not some sentimental feeling.

Oh, I love truth. I love the Bible. And it's not even you declaring some kind of confession to some ancient creed. No. Loving the truth is proven by some kind of action.

To love the truth is to pursue it, is to long for it, is to understand it, is to dive into it. And only there and then are you shielded in the sanctuary of divine objective revelation that will keep you from deception in so many ways. Go to first John chapter two and look at this verse with me. To love the truth. Listen, not your version of the truth.

Not your version of the truth. God's version of the truth. God is the one who is the sole determiner and definer of truth. And so as to love his truth and his truth alone. I want you to see something in first John two fourteen.

John writes to three types of people in this portion of scripture. He writes to children, young men and fathers. Why those three groups of people? Because they speak of different levels of maturity, and namely spiritual maturity. And I want you to see how he speaks to the young men, those who are young.

Why why this group of people? Because it's being young. It's that season and window of time that defines great strength and energy. Right? And look what he says here in verse 14, I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. There's a strength associated with youth. And this is speaking about a spiritual youth. A spiritual strength that is only possible as a result of one thing, tapping into the word of God and letting it live in you. Notice what he says, the word of God abides in you.

You know what most Christians do? They let the word of God occasionally visit their hearts. That's not what it's talking about. A living abiding reality within. Your heart, the address of it is the scriptures.

That's where the scriptures find its home, in you abiding in you. Only then do you unlock a strength that is so profound that it can even overcome the deceiver of the whole world. You can even detect and overcome all of Satan's temptations and all of his lies as a result of one discipline that you can never escape and you can never replace, the Word of God abiding in you. You know, scripture says in Colossians, let the word of Christ richly dwell in you. Richly dwell in you.

Could you say that about yourself? Word of God is rich in me. What did they say about John Bunyan, if you cut the man he would bleed the bible? Let the word of Christ richly let it be rich in you, not poor in you, not scarce in you. Let it overflow in your life.

So many people wonder why they can't overcome temptation. Why they can't overcome deception. Why they're tossed to and fro. Because they're weak, and how are they weak? Because their relationship with the word is weak.

And I want you to see the description of not just the young man, look at the little children. Look at first John two twelve. I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. When you and I are born again, we are little children. That's how we start.

We start as infants in the spirit. And the operating knowledge that we are under when we are little children is what John just describes. We understand the forgiveness that comes from God for His namesake. That is what every born again Christian knows when he comes to the knowledge of the truth. God has forgiven me.

God has cleansed me. God has accepted me. Wonderful. But if that's all you know about your faith and it's been one, two, five, ten years, you're still a little child. You're still a little child.

There are men in their forties and fifties that in the spirit are little children. Why? Because they are just staying at the ABCs of the faith. Little children, your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. So how do you go from a little child to a young strong man or woman?

Well, what we just heard, you gotta get the word. You gotta get the word of God in you. That is the only source of nutrients to grow. And not just grow for the sake of your knowledge in God, which is our primary motivation but to overcome the evil one. There are gonna be a lot of churchgoers in the years ahead that will be deceived because of this lack of discipline.

I'm telling you, there are those who read the verse of the day on their YouVersion app and attend services every single week, that will be deceived by false versions of Christianity because they don't have the word of God abiding in them. Mark my words. False teaching is obvious. It's evident. When somebody degrades and dismisses and ignores the scriptures as the sole authority of divine revelation.

But secondly, it's more complicated than that. False teachers misrepresent, twist, and as we just heard, outright deny the words of Christ. False teachers are much more clever than you and I think, because when you have determined that the Bible is the Word of God, and it's the exclusive library of his truth concerning himself and us, that won't be enough to push a false teacher away. Because the enemy is so proud and desperate to deceive as many people as possible, that he will slither into the camp of Christendom, and he will deceive with the Word of God those who live by the Word of God. Let it be known today that many people are deceived by Satan whispering in their ear while pointing at a verse and saying, it is written.

Oh, yeah. Many people today are believing something false by Satan taking truth and convincing the truth with truth rather for a lie. It is written. Satan says it is written. You know that, right?

You don't believe it. He said it to Jesus. It is written. Satan says it is written than most Christians do. It is written.

It is written. It is written. The moment Satan discovered that Jesus willed the sword of the spirit in that wilderness, he realized, I gotta change my strategy, and now use the very same weapon against him. And so he tells him, it is written. And so what do you do when a false teacher or false teaching is presented to you with scripture to back it up and to advocate it?

Well, you do what Jesus did. After Satan tell them told them, it is written and quotes Psalm 91, Jesus says this in Matthew four seven, Jesus said to him, again it is written. Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord God to the test. Do you know what he's doing there? In other words, Satan comes with Psalm 91 and Jesus says, Yeah.

That's right. But remember what it says in Deuteronomy six six six 16. And then he quotes the verse. What are we trying to imply here? Many false teachings come from a deliberate choice or ignorance and an honest failure to not take into account the entirety of the word of God on a subject.

Many cults have started with pointing to a verse in the Bible and not considering other portions of scripture that speak on the same thing and bringing a balanced view on that theological issue. So Satan knows this and he's tried it with Jesus. He brings one scripture, and this is how you know the Word of God richly abides in you. You hear the subject, you hear the temptation, you hear the lie, and you have all these other scriptures to back it up, and to speak on the same thing. And that's how so many people are tossed to and fro.

All they need is a couple of verses to present be presented to them and they're convinced without looking to the entirety of the library and saying, what is what else does God say about this? And so the safer place to be is to know this word and let the word define the word. I remember being at a conference and after the conference, one of the messages, somebody it was a Q and A session and somebody kind of stood up and essentially challenged one of the messages that was speaking about the war between the spirit and the flesh that we have as believers. And this individual was an older person, and they were making the case that not only should you not sin as a Christian, but temptation shouldn't even be a real thing. Temptation shouldn't be a reality because and then he he starts quoting scriptures about how our desires are changed and how we have a new heart and how we have victory over sin and how we live by the spirit and not the flesh.

And after scriptures are being quoted, I mean, it sounded convincing. And then on top of that, speaking before everybody else of his experience of sanctification and of what you would know as sinless perfectionism, that you as a Christian should never sin at all in thought, deed or word. It's not possible if you're truly born again. Now in that moment, I could have come back with experience and I could have come back with quotes from different men of God and what this pastor said, But the best thing, the thing that ended the matter was quoting scripture. It was just one verse.

Galatians five, speaking about the war between the spirit and the flesh, and how even as newborn believers, there is this battle within us on a daily basis. And we move on to the next question. It is written. Jesus, yeah, it's written. But again, it is written.

It also says this. And so we have to understand that people will come to use the Word of God, to twist the Word of God, to twist our understanding of God. But a final sign of a false teacher is what Paul says here. That they not only teach a different doctrine, they not only agree with the sound disagree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, but they also do not agree with the teaching that accords with godliness. What does that mean?

It means that a false teacher also denies the practical and theological understanding of holiness. At least many do. The equation is very simple. If God's word is used to convict, change, and charge someone to live a pious and holy life, and that very same word is despised, rejected, or ignored, then a holy life is not possible under that kind of a ministry for that minister or those who sit under his teaching. False teachers are not concerned about holiness or godliness, nor they concerned about preaching it or teaching it because it's not a priority in their life.

You know, it's amazing that so many today, although they would not out right deny the teaching of godliness that God presents in his word, they have become masters at tiptoeing around God's call for our consecration. Masters. And there's an outcry today. Right? There's an outcry today of shallow, modern, popular preaching, and I argued today that one of the similarities of these common platforms is the shared lack of concern of holiness.

One of the strongest examples of that, you wanna know it? One of the strongest examples of that in our day is the growing concept that repentance is not required for our salvation. And I remember encountering that first coming into ministry that there are some people in positions of pastoral leadership and even in evangelistic ministries that would condemn somebody such as I that would dare call people to repentance to be saved. And we'll go further than that and say, you're a heretic because you're telling people to do a work so that they can have salvation by calling them to repent. Sounds clever.

Right? Sounds very defensive of the grace of God. Here's the issue, Jesus preached repentance. The disciples preach repentance. And you can get into the Greek word of repentance and metanoia, and what that really means, and understanding all these different ideas of it.

But I remember somebody emailing me about this concern in in their own life, when there's a spiritual leadership that they were under that was teaching against repentance as the call for salvation. And after going back and forth with emails, this idea has just dawned on my mind. I mean, you can debate the Greek, you can debate what it really means and what Jesus meant by change of mind, not change of ways. Okay. But just ask this question.

All you have to do is respectfully approach this pastor and and give him the scenario. Pastor, if after one of your sermons on a Sunday morning, a gay couple holding hands approached you, and as they approached you, they expressed the desire to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time, they've asked you while holding hands, would that require for us to stop living and practicing our homosexual lifestyle? What would your answer be? And I said, if if he says yes, then he believes in repentance as a call for salvation.

If he says no, then you would have to explain the words of the apostle Paul who said, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexual immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, goes down the list, will not inherit the kingdom of God. How do you reconcile that with your beautiful argument apparently of Christ not meaning repentance is a turning away from sin?

And so we have to understand that false teaching will be characterized greatly by a lack of holiness, a hatred for sin, a call to renounce sin while embracing Christ. Repentance is the inseparable other side of the coin of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for his provision for our redemption. You can't separate it. These are some signs generally of a false teacher, but I want you to see the fruit of a false teacher as he describes in verse four. He's puffed up with conceit.

That's the that's the core of it. He's proud. A false teacher is proud and they are proud because they assume they have superior wisdom. And they have some kind of authority to interpret the word of God in a manner that fits their ideology even though it clearly contradicts the word. They're proud because they do not trust in God's decrees on culturally pressing issues, and instead derive and try to give principles that the world gives.

They're proud because they feel as though their supposed confidence will attract people to believe them even though their content is off course. They're proud. Peter says that they're bold and willful even blaspheming the glorious ones. False teachers are charismatic in their personality. They're attractive.

They're eloquent. And oftentimes, we just read here, their pride manifests in an unhealthy obsession with unfruitful and aimless debate. He's puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. I love that. Paul says, they don't know a lick.

At least in the realm of spiritual and eternal values, they know nothing. And it says, he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words. Debates isn't wrong. Conversation about certain things is not wrong, but these kind of people have a a weird obsession. It's a sport.

They have a feverish desire to prove their point, not for the sake or the quest for truth, but to prove that they're someone. Their theological boxing is about feeding their own pride, And it's obvious that many times their subjects of conversation have no value, have no substance. It doesn't have a conclusion, and they don't mind drowning about things that are vain and pointless. And it's all about proving their intellectual prowess. Look at me, and look what I can say, and look how I can come up, and look at these philosophical discoveries that dominate your views.

Their endless talks only feed their pride. And whatever claims they have, whatever information they boast in possessing, Paul says they actually know nothing. They know nothing and it's proven. The vanity is proven by the fruit it produces. What does he say?

And listen, a false teacher is not just somebody behind a pulpit, they could be somebody in the congregation. You wanna know what a false teacher does in a congregation? Which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth. You can go through all of those and and see what it means, but let's just categorize it altogether. The fruit of false teachers have nothing about God in it.

There's nothing about the spirit in there. It's all flesh. It's all flesh. It doesn't produce a greater love for Christ. It doesn't produce a humility to be humble before God.

It doesn't produce anything of the sword. It is completely man centered and it only stirs up more sin. Why? Because they themselves don't have freedom. They themselves don't have liberty.

So how can they offer it to you? This is the main fruit of heretics and false teachers. And you can see it in their lives and sometimes, oftentimes, you can see it in the lives of those that sit under their ministry. Peter says, they promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved, two Peter two nineteen.

They promise purpose when they teach. Right? They promise happiness. They promise wholeness. They promise fulfillment.

They promise liberty. And Peter says, they don't even have that themselves. And what they're offering to you, they don't even have. It's all a scam. But why?

Why go through the efforts of doing that? Why? This kind of fruit being satisfied with it. Lastly, because of their motive. We're here told, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Now pay attention to this. He's speaking about a sarcastic godliness, not a true godliness. A godliness that they have conjured up. It's a godliness that these false teachers promote. And although there are some people who believe something false because they genuinely believe it is true, or they are just victims of deception, Generally false teachers do what they do.

Twist and bend and corrupt because they found that this is a way to get to something. This is actually working to to my advantage and it's for personal gain. Personal gain. Personal advancement. I've discovered that if I can lie to people, they'll actually help me move forward in what I desire in my life.

And my God is my belly. Would you be shocked if I told you that there are some people who even deliberately know they go against God's word? Like it's there, they know it doesn't fit with their logic and reasoning, of greater wealth and Yeah. The false teachers are all sincere, and they're just messed up in their understanding. This verse teaches us that there are people on TV, there are people on the popular YouTube and Instagram accounts that look at this word, and they say, I'm going to deliberately turn my back on it, because it will lead me to a different path for personal gain.

The love of wealth and comfort is the wound that births soul damning teachings. You might not be concerned about that because you're in the truth. Right? You know, what about your friends? What about your family members?

One of the greatest examples of this is Balaam in the Bible. Balaam in the Old Testament was a false prophet and he was hired by name, a man named Balak. Balak saw the nation of Israel wandering through the wilderness and he saw them as a threat and he realized that nothing of my strength can overcome this great people. I need something from the spiritual realm. So he hires a man named Balaam.

And Balaam, this false prophet was invited by Balak to pronounce curses over the nation of Israel. And what's amazing is that Balaam is mentioned three times in totality in the New Testament. We are told about the way of Balaam, the error of Balaam, and the teaching of Balaam. Every time Balaam is mentioned in the New Testament, it's all in the context of warning. Why?

The warning is this, that the same filth that corrupted his character can corrupt yours and has corrupted others and will corrupt others in the future. And listen to what Peter says, just you can turn there if you want in second Peter two fifteen. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing. Oh, we know that.

We know that. That's why some teachers are false because they know that if I teach what is false, I will get some more money as a result of it. But it's much deeper than that. It is much more revealing than that. You wanna know how powerful the love of money is?

We think Balaam just received this invitation and he got the check and he said, let's do this. Let's pronounce some curses. It's much more detailed than that. You see, when Balak invited Balaam, Balaam initially went to God. And he said, Lord, he calls him by his covenantal name, Lord Yahweh.

I'm asking you because I've been invited now to curse this people. What do you think about it? And God answers in numbers 12, rather twenty two twelve, and he says, do not curse this people for they are already blessed. You can't. So Balaam sends word back to Balak, hey I can't do it.

I got I got a no from from God. So Balak realizes I think I have to amp it up a bit. So he sends more honorable men and princes with a greater reward. And when Balaam sees these men coming with who knows what? Chariots, treasure chest, we don't know.

Balaam reconsiders and he comes back to God, and he requests again. And Balaam bites Listen, Balaam experienced something that we all crave, a direct revelation from God. God speaking straight to him. I mean, isn't that everybody isn't everybody want that? Lord, I need some direction in my life, and it's it's possible that it was even audible.

God spoke to Balaam like a face to face encounter. It wasn't some mystery. It wasn't just reading words off a page necessarily. It was God speaking to this man with a real encounter. How much more do you need to be convinced what God God's will is?

And even in the face of that kind of encounter with God, Balaam still goes the way of disobedience for the sake of gain. You know what that tells me? The love of money can be so compelling and powerful that it can nullify and dismiss any impression that you had with a past experience with God. You could have come face to face with God. You could have heard his voice.

He could have done miracles in your life. And the love of money is so real and raw in you that it pulls you even from that kind of impression to go a different way. And we might not be convinced of that, so here's another fellow in the old testament by the name of Gehazi. When you hear Elijah, you often associate him with another man. Who's the other man?

Elisha. They're almost inseparable. Elijah, Elisha. Elisha is known as having a double portion of Elijah's anointing. He was a man who served Elijah during Elijah's prophetic ministry, but when Elijah went home, he received double of what Elijah had.

But many people don't realize that there was a third person in line. We think of Elijah and Elisha, but we don't realize that Elisha himself had a servant. Anybody know? Gehazi. I said it earlier, I guess.

And Gehazi served the same purpose as Elisha did to Elijah. He served him in practical ways. He was his assistant. And though it's not directly told, we get the impression that Gehazi perhaps could have been the third one in line to follow the prophetic supernatural ministry of Elisha and Elijah, but he doesn't. You don't read any stories of Gehazi.

You don't read of any stories of him operating as a prophet, and we are told why. We are told why, because one day after Elijah performs a wonderful miracle for a man named Naaman, who was a Syrian soldier or general that had leprosy that came to Elisha for healing. The healing took place. It's an amazing story, and then Naaman is so moved in gratitude. He wants to reward Elisha.

So he tells Elisha, just take this. And he wants to give him money and clothes and all these possessions. And Elisha says, I will not take this from you. And in Elisha's mind, he's like, I'm not gonna get a reward from somebody that's outside of covenant with God. I'm not taking this.

And so, he respectfully rejects it and Naaman is going to move on. And who's witnessing all of this? Gehazi. And he's thinking to himself, Elisha, I honor you and I respect you, but you're missing it here, man. You're foolish.

This is this is too extreme. So Elisha heads back inside, and Gehazi thinks to himself, I can catch Naaman. He's not too far off now. And so he sneaks out and he reaches Naaman with his servants as they head back to Syria. He comes up to to Naaman and he says, Naaman, Hamgehazi, do you remember me?

I'm I'm Elisha's assistant. Oh, yes. Of course. We just saw you earlier. Listen.

And he begins to tell lies so that he can acquire silver and clothing and and Naaman has no problem. Yes, take it, you can even have more. Elisha takes it and he has a grin on his face and he thinks, okay, this is awesome. This actually worked. And he heads back home thinking that Alashia will have no clue.

He hides his stuff, and as he steps into the same room as his master, I can just imagine the scene though it's not spelled in in great detail that Alashia was just sitting there at his desk maybe writing a letter. And Gehazi is behind them. And Elisha doesn't even look at the man. He says, Gehazi, where were you? You know what this man does?

He lies to Elisha. He lied to Naaman. He now lies to Elisha. It's amazing what the love of money can make you do. It'll make you a liar.

It'll make you a cheater. It'll make you dishonest. You'll lie to the world and you'll lie to men and women of God. He lies. But he could have fooled Naaman, but he could have fooled this prophet.

And so Elisha says this. Listen to these words and how haunting they are. In second Kings five twenty seven. Therefore, the leprosy This is what he says to him. Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.

So he went out from his presence a leper like snow. I wonder if he took his clothes and silver with him. In that moment, he became a leper and not just him but his descendants. Instead of getting Elisha's anointing, he got Naaman's leprosy. You wanna know how powerful the love of money is?

If you love money in these next two weeks, you're gonna really not like these messages that are coming up. If you love money, you're really gonna you're really gonna be upset with what's gonna be said in the next few weeks. The love of money can be so compelling and powerful, not only could it nullify the impression of a direct encounter with God, it can convince you that the honor from wealth is worth pursuing more than the wonderful call of being used mightily by God. Maybe this man didn't realize that he would be cursed in the way he was, but he did prove that disobedience is worth it for the sake of personal gain. I've learned something from my study in these passages, a very simple truth.

Do you know what Satan looks for to find a false teacher? He looks for somebody that loves money. He looks for somebody that loves wealth and comfort and personal gain. Do you know who God looks for for his work? Somebody who does not live for personal advancement.

It's the opposite. Satan has the complete opposite recruiting system than God does. Satan looks for somebody that is completely consumed for personal gain. God looks for somebody that's dead to South and empty and void of any ambition for his own glory. The only gain that a man of God, a woman of God has is for the God to be glorified through their lives.

And when God finds such a person that's brimming with that desire, he can use them in amazing ways. We have to understand this, that there are people today that will damn people souls, even their own souls, just so they can have a more comfortable future. It's happening today. It will continue to happen. And here's what we're preparing for in the next week.

We think that this love for money is just for teachers. Right? There are Naamans, rather there are Gehazi's, and there are Balaam's in churches all over the world. Jesus said two amazing things. He says thank you.

He said that you cannot serve God and what? Did he say sex? Did he say fame? Did he say power? He said money.

Jesus knew that the greatest threat to somebody serving God would be their love for money. And it's proven in Balaam, it's proven in Gehazi, it's proven in Judas, and it's proven in so many professing Christian lives today. You heard today about the marks of a false teacher, the fruit of a false teacher, and the motive of false teachers. And here's our prayer today, that God will protect us from such people, from such ministries, and that we would be strong because of the word of God abiding in us. And in a church that loves the word of God, we may we may have allowed this word to just pass over our thoughts.

But Lord, we know that a day is coming where you've described the future. You've described the end times as being characterized by greater deception. And Lord, we're seeing it already. We ask Lord that every person, if there's any application this morning, that there would be a restart to our engagement with the scriptures, and that your word would make its home in our hearts, and that we would be familiar, and we would be like our Lord, who when the scriptures were brought to him in a perverse way, he could say, again it is written. The word says this, Lord, please let your word dwell in us richly.

Not poorly, not scarcely, not occasionally, but richly. And we pray, Lord, with everything within us that this church would be a church of truth, loves your truth so that we would be saved from deception ourselves. We give you praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen.