Who False Teachers Target | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Well, if you have your Bibles, please meet me in the book of second Timothy. And as your attorney there, may I also add that just because we are doing membership in this church does not mean that we don't love our guests and visitors. And so if you are a guest or a visitor here this afternoon, welcome. We're so blessed that you can sing with us and receive God's word together. We hope that, you would leave here loving Jesus more than when you came in.

That is our prayer for guests and members. So God bless you. If you're there in second Timothy, meet me in chapter three. And then meet me in verse six of chapter three, and let's read and then we will pray. The spirit of God says for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Just as Janes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth. Men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all as was that of those two men. Lord, we ask you today Lord, we ask you today to help us understand these verses. Lord, we thank you for a place for people that love your word.

And Lord, would you honor our hunger for righteousness and fill us this afternoon? Lord, we confess our weakness, our inability to understand or even to communicate this truth apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Lord, we just we just call upon you with desperation in our hearts. We want to know your mind, your heart, your will. We wanna know your character, your ways.

And so we pray, oh God, that you would give us the attention that would be able to receive this word in totality and then the power to obey it. The power to obey it. Lord, we submit ourselves to you in this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

After Paul forewarn forewarns of the deceptions that will come in the last days and the characteristics that will describe those who will populate the earth, that will become normal, that will become praised and commended. These past few weeks, we've been trying to understand these things separately, but we we haven't touched on each of them. That's okay. But we come to the final portion of this text, and we see that before the the verses we read, we recognize that Paul has given Christians a brief instruction in relation to how we should respond to the future corruption that has been prophesied in the scripture. And the summary of how Christians should apply this long list of despicable practices and attitudes is found at the end of verse five.

It's only three words, really, but it is deeply meaningful and important for us to grasp. Paul tells Christians, Paul tells believers, Paul tells Timothy, after hearing about lovers of self and pride and about those who are disrespectful towards authority and slanderous, he says, avoid such people. Avoid such people. That is the Christian's takeaway of how we are to properly counter the flood of filth that will that will come our way, maybe even our lifetime. To avoid simply means to turn yourself away, to keep yourself at a safe distance from those who are dominated by the flesh.

But how is Timothy supposed to avoid something that was supposed to happen in the future? Is this not telling us of a day to come? Is this not telling us about the people that will surface in a future time? Surely. Absolutely.

But for there to be a present application implies something very important. That the things, the evil beliefs and behaviors that will be known then are in operation right now. They are here. They were there in Timothy's day. They were there long before that.

And they're, they are here in America in 2022. And so the understanding here is not, is not to just see it as a future thing, but as a present reality. And as we heard week after week, those things that we learn in verse one to verse five will only intensify as we race towards the final hour before the return of Jesus Christ. Avoid such people. Is that really the best way to relate to those who are in spiritual blindness, who are in hypocrisy, who are consumed with wickedness?

Are we not supposed to reach those people? Are we not supposed to relate to those people? The answer is yes and no. The answer is yes and no. God clearly tells us to avoid such people.

But remember back a few verses when he says that the servant of the Lord must be kind to everyone, able to teach with patience with the hopes that some of them might be able to escape from the snare of Satan. Our participation in seeing people liberated from darkness is not possible unless we interact with such individuals. And therefore we cannot mistakenly think that to avoid such people is equivalent to not engaging with these people. At the same time, Christian, listen to me. There is a warning in these words to be extremely careful about who we entertain in our lives.

About who it is that we allow to have close proximity to us. Who we associate with. Who we allow to be in our inner circle. Because I want to tell you today that there are many Christians who believe they have the restraining power to resist being influenced by others. And I want to tell you, you don't.

There are those who are convinced that they are impervious to the influences of attitudes and the actions of others. That it doesn't matter who they are around or who is around them. And yet the Holy Spirit speaks candidly to Christians about this being a deception. This is a deception that Christians can fall under, and we are told by Paul in one Corinthians 15, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals.

We always emphasize on the second part. Bad company ruins good morals. And we, we forget the first aspect of that verse. Do not be deceived. Implying what?

Christians can be misled in thinking that I can have bad company without corrupting consequences. This is dangerous. There are many reasons why Christians would believe this. That they have some inner fortitude where they can't be swayed by a person or a crowd into the wrong direction. Some think that is just harmless.

That it's just relationships. It's just it's just just having time together. Others would think that, well, you know, it's it's just me being kind and and and that is what they work with when in fact they are really wanting to satisfy, a fleshly pleasure by being associated to some. And yet there are other good hearted Christians that have good intentions, and they are willing to link themselves to others and be present, have them be present in their lives for the sole purpose of saying, I wanna win them to Christ. I wanna I wanna attract them to the gospel.

I wanna bring them closer to the truth, and that is a noble cause. That is something that we should apply. That is something that we should endeavor to do. But let me remind you this afternoon that as much as you might be trying to win some people, there are some people who want to win you. There are some people who want to win you away from Christ, who want to win you away from holiness, who want to win you away from the principles of God's word.

You have to understand that today. But at the same time, we also want to be present in those who are arrested by Satan and his lies. So what do we do? How do we work this out? Very simple.

Get wisdom. That is what Jesus told his original band of soul winners while he was on the earth. He says, Behold, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. And what did he say? Be wise as what?

Serpents. And innocent as doves. That is a very famous verse, but people don't often quote what he says next. The first few verse in Matthew ten seventeen, that was Matthew ten sixteen. After he says, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, he goes on to say, beware of men.

Beware of men. In other words, in your endeavors to relate, build relationships, in your decisions of who you're going to let in and who you're going to keep at a distance, be cautious. Be alert. Be discerning. Be realistic about people.

There are some who actually want to lure you away from the truth that you wanna share. As much as you wanna help people, can I remind you today that there are people out there that wanna harm you? That wanna harm your testimony, your relationship with Christ, you even physically. As much as you want to see people saved, realize that there are some people who want to take advantage of your sacrificial love. So this calls for a discernment.

This calls for a wisdom. And if we don't, we may be inviting life altering problems that could have been avoided, and that is exactly what Paul is teaching Timothy here in those verses that we read. The potential threats of some of those who are driven by carnal desires, and and those carnal desires are listed in verse one to verse five. In essence, what Paul is telling Timothy is, hey, Timothy, listen to me. Understand what I'm trying to say, that you and your people need to learn to avoid others, some specifically.

Because as much as they might be spiritually blind, there are some within that camp that are not just unaware or unbelieving, they are vicious. And they are out for blood. And they actually want to do more damage than you can imagine. And Timothy, I wanna tell you, they are not immediately recognizable. Some of them have the appearance of godliness.

And that is the way they have their way with those who are truly godly. Didn't we read it? In verse six, we are told, four among them. Among who? Again, the list of those people in verse one to verse five.

Notice how honest the Bible is. It doesn't say all of them. It says some of them. In other words, not everybody who is outside of Christ is a lethal threat to you. Not everybody is a danger to you.

Not everybody's going to lead you into deception or to ways of life that will be destructive. Not everybody. But some of them will. And because some of them will, that alone requires for us to be on guard and to seek God for discernment. Who to avoid?

Who to allow? Who to permit and who to disregard? And these people here, some of them, though not all of them, have the potential. They have a goal. They have a twisted ambition and that is what we read.

To capture certain people. Timothy, I need to tell you something. That there are people within the camp of those who do not obey Jesus Christ as Lord, who don't just not believe in the gospel, but they actually seek to take people captive. And Paul is warning here not of physical kidnapping, but about those who are skillful in seducing the mind. Those who are able to trick people.

And the apostle is most likely primarily warning about those who have false teaching and lure people into their damning doctrine, but it's not just limited to that. He could very well be speaking about those who have a cloak of holiness, but in essence come to those who are naive in order to manipulate them so that they can take advantage of them physically, financially, and everything in between. Can I prove that to you? Go to the book of Jude with me, right before the book of Revelation, one chapter, verse four. Jude verse four, we are told, as we turn our bibles there.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. So there are people out there who not only attack the authority of God's word, but there are false people out there who take God's word, twist it, and Jude uses the word perverts it. Perverts it. Isn't the language similar?

Compare verse four here. Who pervert the grace of God. Right? Look at before that. Who have crept in unnoticed.

Isn't that the same language that Paul uses in second Timothy? Verse six in chapter three. For among them are those who creep into households. So what's the idea here? It's that they cunningly come off as knowledgeable and spiritual people.

They come off as innocent, and so innocent do they come off that they are actually able to enter into people's personal domains and sit and have dinner with them and sit in their living rooms. And so they come into people's personal lives under false pretenses. And so it's not immediately seen. They worm their way and they convince people falsely. And some of these imposters will create friendships.

Friendships in order to lure people away from the gospel or not to not even believe in it in the first place. But not just that. There are some who actually build relationships through the shared love of a supposed gospel when in fact they pervert it practically. And they seek to cause you to join them in their perversion of truth. So we're not just merely talking about people who are clearly in lies about God or false religions.

We're talking about those who pervert the grace of God. And listen, as much as you and I should feel safe in this community of faith, we should not be foolish. We should not be foolish to believe that there are not some who are willing to daringly enter into here, slither there away in order to do just that. Lure some away. We cannot think for a moment and be ignorant of the schemes of the minions of Satan, to think that he just lurks outside.

Oh, no. He doesn't just lurk outside. He seeks to lure those from within, from the protective care of elders and those who make up the body of that local church. You gotta believe it. But these wolves are clever, man.

They are clever. They know who to sniff out. They know exactly who to go for as their primary target. They don't just go for anybody. And Paul is about to describe the criterion, who it is that these men specifically gravitate towards, who it is that they often convince and draw away from the truth, either from initial belief or because they're weak in the faith into destructive behavior.

Read it again, would you? In verse six. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak woman. Weak woman. You can breathe, woman.

He's not saying all woman. My sisters, he's not generalizing your sex. He's speaking about a certain class of woman. He's speaking about those that he, by the spirit, has observed. There's a pattern here.

That when these false teachers and these false people come after to devour, they often initially come after those who are women. And somebody cleverly pointed out that even from the beginning, when Satan slithered his way to the first parents of humanity, he did not go to Adam first, he went to Eve. And those who advocate error have followed his example ever since. Perhaps some would mistakenly think that the weakness of woman here remember, he's not saying all women are weak. He's speaking about a certain category of woman who are weak.

Some would probably think that this speaks of a unique gullibleness or a trustworthy spirit that just just believes anything that they hear, and that would be a misinterpretation of what Paul is saying here about weakness. The weakness that he is describing here speaks of a frailty in morality and in spirituality. He's not speaking about a less than average intelligence or ability to reason. That is not the case at all. What he's saying about weakness is described in these verses.

The weakness here is in what we just read. And what's profound about Paul's thoughts here by the spirit is that these characteristics of what makes a woman or a man weak is that it is connected to deception. Meaning, if these things are true in a person's life, they are more prone to being deceived, and there are evil men out there who are fully aware of that and will take advantage of it. So let's look at these characteristics. Remember weakness is not speaking of all women.

Let me clarify. Weakness is speaking about a category of woman who through pattern have fallen victim primarily to these evil men. Number one. We are told here they are burdened with sins. They are burdened with sins.

The idea of being burdened here speaks of having sins heaped upon them and experiencing the heavy guilt that wrongdoing often causes. It speaks about a conscience that is tormented almost. It speaks about your past sins or your present sins that stir up humiliation, that cause you to be disappointed in yourself to the point where it even affects your emotional stability. False teachers, please pay attention, and false professing Christians love to play on people's shame and guilt. They love it.

They can smell it. And what they do often is that they cleverly seek to discover your secrets, your failures of the past, maybe your struggles in the present because they realize that if having these insights, they can easily manipulate you. And sometimes that manipulation looks like promising false relief or false salvation. Is it not true that many people seek out spiritual things when they've made a wreck of their lives? When because of their decisions, they have been led on a path of destruction and and emptiness and being void, they begin to seek out transcendent realities.

And and that can be good because they can find the gospel, but false teachers also want to present something that is not true. And so sometimes, oftentimes, people who are burdened by their way of life, crushed by what they've done to people and to themselves, begin to now yearn for something else, some answers too, what can fill and and help them not realize their shame and help them distract themselves from their pain, and they are introduced to false teaching, false teachers. Welcome to the world of cults. You know how many cults bring in people? You know how they bring in people?

Many reasons. One of them is this. They they they bring, an invitation into a communal life. And and and that's a perversion of what we know in the church. But they they try to convince you of some satisfaction of some kind of love, which is a false love.

It's packaged with poison. And people who are burdened by life, people who are lonely, people who have made decisions that have caused them to be in a certain place, gravitate towards these false teachers, because these false teachers gravitate towards them. But it's not just limited to that. People who are burdened with sins, these these people who are false can smell it and they capitalize on it, not to lead you into damning beliefs, but to use that as a weapon against you. And what these people will do is they will often smear your failures in your face, especially when you do not give them what they ask of you.

They know how to, they know how to play on your guilt in order to steer you in a certain direction. And if you don't believe what I am saying, this is biblical. This isn't psychology. This isn't scripture. This is the strategies of those who are consumed with the flesh and want to consume others to satisfy their flesh.

Turn with me to second Peter chapter two verse 14. So remember, there are those who come after people who are burdened with sins, as Peter says, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves to corruption. That's the new age. That's every other religion apart from the true one. Promising you freedom while they themselves are slaves to corruption.

But there are others who will manipulate those who are unsteady, who are burdened in order to satisfy their sin. Second Peter two fourteen proves it. This is a this is a context on false teachers, and Peter says about these false teachers, they have eyes full of adultery. You know what that means? They are so consumed with lust that every woman they look at is a potential fantasy to being fulfilled.

Somebody that they can commit adultery with, somebody that they can get to commit adultery with them, their their eyes are full of adultery. They just see women as objects. But look how they do it. Look how they lure people. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.

They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children. I wanna tell you that predators can easily detect those who have broken pasts, And they favor those kinds of people as prey because they know, they know that they have an advantage with somebody who is emotionally damaged or unstable in their soul, who are not anchored, who don't understand their identity and the freedom that they have in Jesus Christ, who have been set free by the knowledge of the truth, Burdened with sins. These weak women are burdened with sins, but not just burdened with sins. They are led what is what are we told?

And led astray by various passions at the end of verse six. This is not the same as the previous point. What Paul is teaching here is that the communicating truth is that these women are driven by the flesh. Their decisions and their desires are not governed by the word of God. They are dominated by the natural mind.

Not by the influence of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, but by the flesh. And notice, he doesn't mention any particular sins. He says, led astray by various passions. There is a wide spectrum of selfishness that all have the same effect. And they could include anything that we've studied over the past several weeks from verses one to verse five.

It can be women who are unrepentant of pride, of gossip, of slander, of the love of money, of materialism. But here's the main point. Because their lives are not governed by the spirit, they're easily guided by the wrong people. To tolerate any sin can be catastrophic in many ways, but let me give you one consequence of sin that many do not consider. When sin, when a life of obedience is not repented of, but cherished and embraced, it blunts, it dulls a person's ability to discern.

It creates a fog. It does something to reason. It does something to your ability to see things as they are, as they should be seen. And there are so many examples, but the one verse that comes to mind that makes us so clear, it's found in the prophet's book, Hosea in chapter four verse 11. I believe this is worth turning your bibles to to see the wisdom of God concerning the consequences of sin.

He's speaking about his people. His people who were destroyed for what? A lack of what? Knowledge. It's the same chapter.

Hosea four six. My people are destroyed. What a powerful word. Destroyed, shattered, crushed because of a lack of knowledge. And then he goes on to say in Hosea four eleven, and speaking about the equation of lacking the truth of God in the addition of this.

Look at this in verse 11. Whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding. Whoredom, wine and new wine, it does something. It takes away understanding. Now there's no debate that if a person is intoxicated with drink that they lose their ability, at least a lot of ability, to discern or to make right judgments.

That that's obvious. But what might not be obvious is that the Holy Spirit places in the same verse of the category of wine, whoredom. A promiscuous life indulged in sexual immorality. And would you have ever guessed that something like whoredom would have the same effects to the mind, to the spirit of a man as alcohol does to the body? Has anybody ever considered that this sin can lead someone to just as much foolishness as a person who is intoxicated with alcohol can be.

That's why in Proverbs six, we are told that he who commits adultery lacks sense. He lacks sense. She lacks sense. She doesn't understand he doesn't understand what this is going to lead to. So there's an intoxicating influence from sin.

And we see that in Numbers 25. You don't have to turn there. Verse one. When the sons of Israel are now committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab. They're getting involved physically with these idol worshipers.

And then in the very next verse, we are told that they start worshiping these false gods. How did you go from intimate relationships to bound before an idol? Well, because whoredom takes away understanding. Or what about, what about an individual like Solomon? That guy.

Remember his community of wives that he had? What a tragic figure. A man with so much wisdom. Wisdom from God. Wisdom to build God's house.

But because because of a lust. A lust for power, political power. A lust for women, obviously. That wisdom became blurred. And it's not just lust, my brother and sister.

It's not just limited to whoredom and new wine. Oh, if you've been with us on Friday nights, we have a case study of somebody who has lost all sense of perception concerning his fellow man himself and God, King Saul. Oh, the the craziness of this man, believing things about God, believing things about the right people, about the wrong people, it's just unfathomable. And where does it all start from? Oh, you just trace it back.

He allowed pride and jealousy to reign in his heart. And that pride and jealousy bred deception, and he couldn't see God right. He couldn't interpret events right. He couldn't see the people right. Sin impairs our judgment.

This is why we should flee from it. Peter tells us to war against the passions of your flesh because they war against you. Sin is not some little pet that you can keep in your living room and visit once in a while and feed when you're hungry, when she's hungry. No. Sin will destroy your life.

It will shatter your life. I'm just blown away by how underemphasized sin is in many pulpits today. And if sin is cherished, if it is tolerated, listen, it should be no question that it would lead somebody to the wrong people and even to the wrong beliefs, especially when those beliefs allow you to hold on to your sin. And so Paul says these false teachers, these people who have an appearance of godliness, even who might even hold a Bible, these people come after those who are led not by the spirit, not by the word, but by the impulses of their flesh. But lastly, he says something quite interesting.

In verse seven, here's a third characteristic of those who are weak morally, weak spiritually. They're always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. So this verse alone deals with any controversy about the weakness here being spoken of of being uneducated or simple minded. That's not the case at all. In fact, the woman that Paul has in mind when he is teaching on this demonstrate great hunger for knowledge.

They're actually eager to acquire information. And let's put it in our context. Some of these women can have their BAs, their MAs, their PhDs. Some of them can be avid readers. They can be students of history.

They can be familiar with the political landscape. They can debate philosophy. And they can even attempt to satisfy their spiritual itch by listening to gurus and teachers who might even call themselves Christians when in fact they are not biblical. But with all of that education, with all of that acquirement of general knowledge, with all of the questionable faith based teachings that they are plugging into their ears through podcasts, Paul has one main concern about these women who are weak. They're biblically illiterate.

They're always learning, but they never arrive to the knowledge of the truth. And primarily that means that they, they reject the gospel altogether, but it's not limited to that. The word knowledge here speaks about a correct and precise understanding. It's the same thing that Paul prayed for for the Ephesians when he says, oh, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened concerning the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That you would have a precise laser focused understanding of Jesus, a deeper grasp of the truths of God, these women never arrive there.

They don't. It's not speaking about you having a memorized systematic theology. It's not about you being a theologian. It's more than that. It's speaking about a disinterest in the things of God.

It's speaking about a failure to see the beauty of the the gospel and wanting to discover deeper things in him. It speaks about not being governed by the authority of God's sovereign word. And Hosea said it, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Blend it all together now. Blend all these characteristics together.

What do you have when a person either rejects or is disinterested in discovering the glories of God's word? What what's gonna happen eventually? You will settle for lesser things, for cheaper substitutes that this world offers, namely sins, namely idols. And when a person is ensnared, they are arrested by their sins, and they are void of the fulfilling fellowship that comes through Jesus Christ, they are candidates. They are more susceptible to being led astray.

And sometimes being led astray means to believe heresy. And other times, it means being used and abused by merciless people who claim to be religious. And sometimes they'll abuse you financially. Just look at the false teachers that are being funded. And other times it can mean your body being used by somebody who tricked you with a few verses to convince you that they were a man of God.

We've been speaking about weak women so far, and again, it's not just limited to men are not exempt from this. So if you're a man in this place and you think, well, you you can be weak as well. But Paul again is seeing a pattern throughout history. By the spirit, he understands something specific. We've been speaking about weak women.

Let me address my sisters this afternoon. As a brother, God wants you to be strong. God wants you to be strong. Strong and and a strength that the bible describes, not as the world describes. Not not financially strong, not physically strong, spiritually strong.

I want you to be encouraged by this. I want you to leave here built up with these thoughts. It is very difficult to manipulate a woman who is secure in her adoption in Jesus Christ. Someone who has truly tasted the grace of God and seeks to grow in the knowledge of her savior is very difficult to move. So study.

Study your word. I know it's difficult if you're a mom with babies running around, but that does not exempt you from the invitation of knowing your God. Jesus is just as much as your savior, as he is your husband's savior, as your brother's savior. There's this misconception that men should be more theologically discerning and sophisticated than women. Said who?

Ask Apollos how he felt when a couple came up to him and the wife knew just as much as the husband. Study, know your God, be secure, and and understand these truths until it causes you to worship. Not so that you can answer questions if somebody comes up to you to see if you're knowledgeable. No, no, no, no. To cause your heart to be ravished with the beauties of Jesus.

Evil men will find it very problematic to persuade a lady who like Mary of Bethany enjoys sitting at the feet of the Lord. Who is mesmerized by him, who eats his every word. How can you move a woman like that? When in that setting, there was so much distraction but she was focused on the bread of life. Or would you practice her posture?

Even if it's just a few minutes a day before the hoodlums get up, before chores come, would you learn to do it while you're doing those things? Just just practice the posture of looking at the Lord, worshiping him spontaneously, receiving his word, studying it, talking about it with your husband, talking about it with your friends if you're single. Satan and his minions have little to work with when they encounter a woman who is led by truth rather than her emotions. Who who take this word and determine how they discern, how they decide, how they even feel no matter who says what. Paul speaks of weak women, but we pray that the woman of MBC would be strong.

Strong. God wants you to be strong. And brothers, encourage the woman spiritually. Encourage them spiritually. Speak spiritual things to them.

Have conversations and be patient. Be loving. Ask questions. Have debates. Build up your sisters because there are evil men out there that wanna manipulate and take advantage of.

We read here in verse eight that if you are strong, you'll be able to avoid people like who Paul is about to mention. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. Men corrupted in mind. You might be thinking, who would dare take advantage of people, especially women? Men who are corrupt in mind, twisted, selfish, driven by lust.

That's who. They're not just out there. Oh, sometimes they sit in places like this. Men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. Those names are not familiar.

They're not familiar to me. They shouldn't be to you. You know why? Because they're only mentioned here. They're only mentioned once in all of the bible.

And the debate is where did Paul get these names? Because it is often believed that these men were the two chief magicians that stood against Moses when Moses came against Pharaoh to see his people set free. And so Jewish tradition claims that. And we can spend the next fifteen minutes talking about the sources that Paul had and how that relates to the sufficiency and inerrancy of scripture. But we're not gonna go there because that's not Paul's main point nor is it the Holy Spirit's.

That's a conversation for another time. The main idea here is that Paul by the Spirit points to these two men. We have their names, but we know what they did in Exodus for a specific reason. There are many people in the Old Testament that have opposed truth, that have stood against men of God, the message of God. But why these two specifically?

Why these two men? Why that specific scenario? And I present to you three potential reasons. Number one, the ambition of these magicians is the same as false teachers and false believers today. What were they doing when Moses came and said, let my people go and God had given them a host of miracles to perform?

What were these magicians doing? They were trying to perform the same miracles with the goal of making sure that God's people would not be set free. They were trying to restrict and they were trying to cut off any potential of pharaoh or anybody else being persuaded that these people deserve salvation. And false teachers do the same. They bar people from the truth.

They don't want people to experience what only Christ can provide. And whether they are aware of it or not, whether they are intentionally doing so does not justify their falsehood. Satan has all these false teachers with different masks for the same purpose, to make sure that people do not know the deliverance of the Passover lamb. And so they have the same ambition. And what's important here is that it's not just to bar people from accepting the gospel, but it's also to ensnare people again who might have believed the gospel.

To bring you back to your former sins. To bring you back into the days of Egypt where you were governed by pharaoh and not by the God of Israel. So these magicians desire to see you enslaved. Desire to see those to never be set free, and those who have been set free to do just what those people were tempted to do in the wilderness. Let's go back to Egypt.

Some would even say that these magicians followed Israel into the wilderness. That's tradition. And they were the voices that were continually convincing these people to go back to Egypt. It's called the mixed crowd in the book of Numbers, and that's not a farfetched interpretation. The ambition of these magicians are the same of false teachers in Timothy's day and today.

False people who come into the church even. Secondly, the deception of these magicians has the same power as false teachers today. Now the way you're gonna see that is if you go to Exodus with me. So go with me to Exodus as we close in a moment here. I want you to see something.

You know this, but I want you to see it for yourself. Let's begin in Exodus chapter seven. Exodus chapter seven verse 10. This is after Let's begin in verse 10. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded.

Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. Go to verse 22. This is after the Nile was turned into blood and all water sources were turned into blood. We are told in Exodus seven verse 22, but the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts, so Pharaoh's heart remained hardened and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.

Go to chapter eight verse seven. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So we see in the in the first few plagues, the first few miracles, whatever Moses did, the magicians matched it. Now I want you to imagine what an onlooker would think. Every time Moses did something, the magicians did the same.

You know what could potentially run through their mind? There's no difference between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt. They're similar. They can do the same things. Equal power, equal messages, e equal equal promises maybe.

There's no difference here. And so you see here that these men were deceiving people including pharaoh, primarily pharaoh, to see that the God of Israel is not as powerful as he says he is. And listen, false teachers do the same. To the undiscerning, they see the package, they see the performance, and they go, there's no difference here. There's no difference here.

Very similar messages, very similar ideas, very similar concepts, maybe even the same God. And I want to tell you that's not just for those who interpret religions all as one, different packages leading to the same person. You even have some Christians, professing Christians, who are not discerning. And all it takes is for somebody to come in and speak Christianese, quote a few verses, and hold the Bible. And maybe even have it highlighted and they show you it's highlighted.

And they're like, that must be the real deal. Really? Really? They have an appearance of godliness. Just like those magicians had an appearance of having the same power as the power of God.

So do men today persuade people with a form of power, a form of salvation, in falsehood, in clear falsehood, but even in Christendom with a false Christian message. By the way, can I let me just say this? Please, please do not think that false teachers have pulpits all the time. Did they creep into pulpits or did they creep into households? They crept into households.

Not all false people wear shepherd's clothing. They wear sheep's clothing. And so they can very well be in the pew. And today, they don't just creep into household by knocking on your door like this ancient time. They creep into your households through your television, through your YouTube.

Lastly, not just the ambitions of these magicians being the same as false teachers today, not just the deception, but also the fate. And Paul ends this thought on an encouraging note in verse nine back in second Timothy. He tells Timothy something that he would not be overly burdened by as he brings this hopeful note concerning these people. We are told that after he mentions these names of their future, and the future is clear of these men, but they will not get very far for their folly will be plain to all as was that of those two men. Let me simplify what he's trying to say.

These people that persuade the masses, these people that persuade even naive, innocent, burdened people within the church, they're not gonna get away with it. They're not. He says, their folly will be plain to all. That's what happens to to those two magicians. What happened eventually?

It came to the miracle of the gnats. Right? Moses performs that miracle and they try and they couldn't and they look at Pharaoh and they go, that's the finger of God. They've reached a limit. They they could not cross a certain line with their abilities.

And in the sight of those who are discerning, they said, these guys are fake. They're not the real deal. They're not legit. And to a certain degree, God in this lifetime is willing and has been and can expose people. He can.

If you even think about these false movements throughout history, they haven't lasted. They just come and go. There are others who try to manipulate people from within, and they seem Christian, they seem godly, and God exposes them. Their folly will be plain to all. Not everybody will get away.

But even if throughout a lifetime or throughout centuries there are false things that are not, that are not going away, that are not being exposed, there is a day coming where God will expose them. Remember, this is in the context. Here's full circle in this section of the last days. And in the last days, not only will things become more ugly, but God will have the final say. Not only will deception be rampant, but truth will penetrate and bring all things to light.

And you think about these men, not only did they perform these deceptive miracles, not only were they exposed, but in one of the miracles where God, in the sixth one precisely, brings boils on the Egyptians. These magicians, we are told, were also exposed to the boils. They were judged by God. And that's what's gonna come. That's what Paul is saying.

Timothy, although you may have seen people captured, although you've seen people being hindered from being saved, and maybe you've even seen people from within who who who were close to coming, who had some kind of understanding of Christianity but were were swept away, know this. God will have the final word. And whether in this life or in the life to come, people will see the folly of everything or everyone who is outside of Jesus Christ. And so I encourage you today to be encouraged. To be encouraged that no matter what people are getting away with, they will have to face God one day.

They won't. All many things have been said, but I wanna steer our direction out towards the Lord's table. And I want us to just prepare ourselves to meet with the Lord and to reflect on our redemption. Know this, if you are in this place and I wanna make a gospel call here. If you are in this place, you're visiting, you may be a Christian, you may not be a Christian, But this is this is a message for you in what sense?

Maybe you are burdened with sins, and you're trying to find relief. And you've you've picked up books, and you're listening to different teachers and spiritists, and you came out here for just for curiosity's sake, I wanna let you know that no one can give you freedom apart from Christ. No one. You will fail. You'll be disappointed.

You'll be empty. You might be happy for for a brief season, but you'll realize that nothing has the power to fill that void. Nothing can roll the burdens off your shoulders. The burden of a conscience that is troubled by your actions, your words. Only Christ can deliver you, and he wants to deliver you today.

Maybe you are led away by various passions, and it has led you into dangerous places. Know this. No matter where your feet have taken you, no matter what your hands have performed, no matter what you have even believed, no matter what you might even believe now, Christ is ready to forgive you. He is. He wants to restore you and redeem you.

And maybe you're always learning. Maybe to you Christianity is is a hindrance to intellect. I wanna let you know something, that this book has been through intense scrutiny. Men have tried to bury it. Men have tried to burn it.

Men have tried to dismiss it. But the word of the Lord endures forever. This word has transformed lives. This word has test stood the test of time. This word will be the very thing that will last forever with God.

And your conscience bears witness to you this afternoon that you are a sinner, that you have a judge to face one day. God has instilled that in man. And that's why man wants to dismiss God as much as possible. They don't wanna have to face the reality that when they give their final breath, they will meet the king of the universe. But may I add something to that thought that that same king that man will stand before came into this world.

He died on a cross. He went into a tomb. He rose from that grave so that he can purchase your redemption. So if you're burdened today, that burden can be lifted off of you. But only one name can save you and that's Jesus.

Call upon his name. I've done my part. And I'm here afterwards with pastor Daniel and other leaders in this place, other Christians in this place that might lead you to that truth. More importantly, it leads to this, a living Christ who is willing to intervene in your life right now. Call upon his name.

Believers, would you examine yourselves in this moment? Are you walking right with the Lord? Do you testify to the unity of the body of Christ or is there disunity in your language? Is there disunity in your actions? Is there somebody that you're supposed to reconcile with today?

Is there somebody that you're supposed to sit and say sit down with and say, hey, we have to deal with this before we come to the Lord's table. Do that. Don't come. Don't come. Judge yourselves lest you be judged.

That's what the the text tells us. And for those who are not Christians in this place, we ask you kindly not to participate in this because this is an ordinance reserved for those who have believed on Jesus Christ. If you're in this place and and you're not a Christian, we don't we don't judge you in this sense where we look down on you with scorn. We just ask you kindly not to participate because the Lord strictly reserves us for his children. And so as we come, you're gonna take the elements, bring it with you.

We just ask that you don't eat or drink yet because we're gonna sing a hymn, and then pastor Daniel's gonna lead us in a few words to reflect, and then we will eat and drink together. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this word. Thank you that even in a word of warning, you can encourage us. And we pray, oh God, that we would be encouraged to be strong, both men and women.

We pray, oh God, that you would protect this assembly from those who are false. And that, Lord, we would be able to discern and dissect and determine through the word who is for you and who is against you. Father in heaven, we ask that as we come to this table, the Lord's table, that it would have a sanctifying effect on this people, on all of us, Lord. And Lord, if it will do anything, may it renew a joy in your salvation. That as we hold this element of bread and this element of the cup, that we would remember that it's not about our good, it's not about our behavior, it's not about our performance that has purchased anything, but it's what Christ has done.

And Lord, we might be going through many trials, troubles, we might be wanting certain things, but Lord, may this may this time now remind us that we have all that we need in Jesus. Please, Lord, make that real in us this afternoon. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.