Chapter 16, the Bible reads,
Come in, you went to Phoebe, our sister,
which is a servant of the church which is at Centria.
That you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints,
and that you assist her in whatsoever business
she hath need of you,
she hath been a succor of many and of myself also.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus,
who have for my life laid down their own necks,
and whom not only I give thanks,
but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
Likewise, greet the church that is in their house.
Salute my well-beloved Epinadus,
who is the firstfruits of Achaea unto Christ.
Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us.
Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen,
and my fellow prisoners,
who are of note among the apostles,
who also were in Christ before me.
Greet Amplius, my beloved, and the Lord.
Salute Urbain, our helper in Christ,
and Stacchus, my beloved.
Salute Apellius, approved in Christ.
Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
Salute Herodian, my kinsmen.
Greet them that be of the household of Anarcissus,
which are in the Lord.
Salute Trifina and Trifosa, who labor in the Lord.
Salute the beloved Persis,
which labored much in the Lord.
Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord,
and his mother and mine.
Salute Asyncritus, Phledrin, Hermus, Patrobus, Hermes,
and the brethren that are with them.
Salute Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister,
and Olympus, and all the saints which are with them.
Salute one another with an holy kiss.
The churches of Christ salute you.
Now beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned,
and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ,
but their own belly,
and by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple.
For your obedience has come abroad unto all men.
I'm glad, therefore, on your behalf,
but yet I would have you wise
unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.
The God of peace shall bruise Satan
under your feet shortly.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Amen.
Timotheus, my work fellow,
and Lucius, and Jason, and Saucipiter,
my kinsmen, salute you.
I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle,
salute you in the Lord.
Gaius, mine host, and of the whole church,
salute with you.
Erasteth, the chamberland of the city,
salute with you.
And Quardus, a brother.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.
Now the hymn that is of power
to establish you according to my gospel,
and the preaching of Jesus Christ
according to the revelation of the mystery
which was kept secret since the world began,
but now is made manifest
by the scriptures of the prophets
according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
To God only wise be glory
through Jesus Christ forever.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord God,
just ask that you be your pastor from here now,
please strengthen him, fill him with your Holy Spirit,
and please bless the preaching,
help us to be edified in a grown grace,
the knowledge of your son Jesus Christ,
and in his name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Okay, we're in Romans chapter 16 this morning,
and what I wanna preach on today
is the subject of heresy.
I wanna give a biblical definition of what heresy is,
look at all the instances
that the word is used in the Bible,
and then just give some practical application
towards the end of this sermon
so we can put the cookie on the bottom shelf.
Look at Romans 16, in verse 17 it says,
now beseech your brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned,
and avoid them.
If we're to give just a basic definition
of what heresy is,
if you're to look at the Bible,
it actually doesn't necessarily give you per se
a definition when the word is used,
but the context of course,
and the chapters, the verses that surround it
clearly explicitly explain to us what it means,
and if we're to place a definition on it,
it would simply be that which is contrary
to sound doctrine, right?
That which is contrary to sound doctrine.
Now the question is, what is sound doctrine?
Well, sound doctrine would mean
doctrine that is free of defect.
It doesn't have any perversion.
It's not corrupted.
So sound is that which is complete,
that which is perfect,
that which is free of corruption.
Therefore, heresy would be the opposite of that.
It is essentially that which is contrary
to the biblical teachings,
the clear explicit biblical teachings of the Bible,
and in fact, the word heresy,
it's not a translation, it's actually a transliteration.
They actually take it from directly
from the original Greek,
and so we can look at all the instances
that it's used in the Bible
and come to a conclusion
that it simply means false doctrine.
It means that which is contrary,
that which is corrupted,
teachings of the Bible that has been perverted
to fit a narrative that's not found in the word of God.
Now, go with me, if you would, to Acts chapter 24.
Acts chapter 24.
In Romans 16, I find it interesting
that it actually tells us,
it kind of goes through a list of,
it's a call-out chapter, so to speak,
a chapter of tribute where the apostle Paul
is commending people who have labored in the Lord,
those who have been a blessing
to the believers and the churches,
and he calls them out by name, right?
He's actually naming them, he's labeling them,
and he goes through this entire list,
and then at the end of that list,
he says, now I beseech your brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned.
And you think to yourself,
well, what does it mean to mark someone?
You know, if the Bible's telling us to mark them,
does that mean pull out a Sharpie
and just go through and just put a mark on them?
What does it actually mean to mark them?
Well, he gives us that example
of what it means to mark them in the previous verses
by calling them out by name.
And in fact, if you think about it,
how are the believers supposed to be aware
or be careful or avoid people
who are teaching false doctrine if they don't name them?
So it's important then when we call out false teachers,
false doctrines, we are very specific
and explicit about it because the fold of God
needs to know who they're supposed to avoid.
And the reason that's important
because a lot of churches will often call out a false prophet
but they don't wanna name the names,
they don't wanna be controversial,
but the Bible clearly shows us here
that we're supposed to mark them
and the marking is explicitly illustrated in the chapter
by naming who they are, you understand?
We could say that the previous people
that were named here in Romans chapter 16
were marked by the apostle Paul
as being laborers of Christ,
those who were faithful,
those who helped him in the ministry,
they want them to know who these people are, okay?
And we're gonna read Acts 24 in just a bit
but let me just make a couple more comments
regarding Romans 16.
He says, mark them which cause division.
And what is a division?
It's a schism.
And the Bible shows us here that God wants a church
to be unified around the right doctrines,
around the truth.
And so if you introduce heresy,
if you introduce that which is defected,
that which is perverted in its doctrine,
you're gonna cause a division in the church.
And the Bible specifically tells us
that he wants us to be all of the same mind,
to believe the same primary and essential doctrines.
That is what unifies believers, right?
And so when heresy is introduced though,
it creates division, it creates schisms,
it creates a lot of problems
in the local New Testament church.
So it says, mark them which cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which he have learned and avoid them.
And we'll mention this later on in the sermon,
but the way you avoid them is by excommunicating them.
Essentially saying, you should have nothing to do
with people who are preaching false doctrine.
You understand?
Should have nothing to do with Jehovah's Witnesses,
Mormons, that which, you know, sex of Christianity
that teach a perverse manner of doctrine of the gospel.
The Bible says, mark them and avoid them,
have nothing to do with them.
So we're gonna go through some of the instances here
where the Bible uses the term heresy.
And let me just say this is that
there are sex of Christianity
that would label us as heretics.
They would say that we are filled with heresy.
You know, one of the biggest ones is Roman Catholicism.
They would say that we've gone apostate,
that we're heretical because of the fact
that we are contrary to the traditions
of the Roman Catholic Church.
And to that I say, amen.
Because I don't hold to the traditions
of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Word of God is my final authority.
The Bible tells me that the Word of God
is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.
It says that all scripture is given
by inspiration of God, that it's profitable
for doctrine, for proof of correction,
and instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished into all good works.
Sounds to me like we only need the Bible
to be a good Christian.
Not to say there's not material out there
that can aid with that, but the superior book
for the Christian to read, to adhere to,
to be what God wants him to be is the Word of God.
And the Bible actually tells us
to cast down imaginations in every high thing,
listen to this, that exalted itself
against the knowledge of God.
And you know what the traditions
of the Roman Catholic Church are?
They are that which exalts itself
above the knowledge of God.
And so at that point, we just discard it,
disregard it, and hold to the Word of God.
Now, let me give you an example of this.
In Acts chapter 24, verse 14, look what it says,
or verse 13, it says,
"'Neither can they prove the things whereof
they now accuse me.'"
This is the Apostle Paul speaking.
"'But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy,
so worship I, the God of my fathers,
believing all things which are written in the law
and in the prophets.'"
So obviously, he is talking about the Pharisees, right?
And the Pharisees were an apostate sect
of biblical religion at one point
where they adhere to some of the doctrines
and even the scriptures, but they were apostate,
they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ,
they top four commandments, the traditions of men.
And the Bible tells us here
that they call the way, Christianity, heresy, okay?
And so heresy can be used to describe
a particular belief, but it's also used to describe a sect.
Because what he's saying here is that
he's calling the way, this form of Christianity, heresy.
Now turn with me if you want
to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
1 Corinthians chapter number 11.
Let me start off by saying that churches and Christians,
but churches are not safeguarded from heresy.
Don't think for a second
that because you go to a fundamental Baptist church
where the Word of God is being taught
and we're constantly talking about doctrine,
we're educating people about the essentials of the faith,
about salvation, that some form of heresy
could not infiltrate this church
and people can be deceived.
It can happen, and listen to me, it will happen.
You don't want to be the person who's like,
I can't believe this happened
at First Works Baptist Church.
How can you let this happen?
The Bible actually predicts that this is gonna happen.
And in fact, there's certain instances, listen to me,
where God allows it to happen.
You say, why so?
Look at verse 18.
It says, for first of all,
when you come together in the church,
I hear that there be divisions among you
and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you.
Why?
That they which are approved
may be made manifest among you, the Bible says.
So according to the Bible,
God will sometimes allow and permit
for people to bring in heresy
in order for those who are approved,
that could be referring to the pastor,
church leaders, or even church members,
to be approved of God
so they can be made manifest amongst the churches.
What does that mean?
It means that it really separates the men from the boys.
Really shows you who really believes what the Bible says
and who's just playing the part, understand?
And so when heresy infiltrates,
when damnable heresy infiltrates the church,
and you have maybe a group of people in the church,
five people, two people, whatever it may be,
that are buying into that heresy,
it's gonna create division, but the division is this.
The heretic's gotta get out
and God's people who believe right stay in.
And you know what?
This is God's will for a church
for it to remain pure in its doctrine.
Like, well, maybe it's just a misunderstanding.
Well, I'm gonna explain to you this morning
that when it comes to explicit doctrines in the Bible,
there can be no misunderstanding.
You know, God explicitly lays out certain doctrines
that he wants us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt,
and he doesn't want us to question,
and they're very simple to understand.
Obviously, there are obscure scriptures in the Bible,
things that are hard to be understood,
and things that require maybe some opinion,
and you can conjure up your own opinion about it,
but there are other doctrines
that are very much important,
such as the subject of salvation,
that is pretty easy,
and it requires just a really wicked person
to claim that it says otherwise.
And God will allow certain heresies to come in
to really sift out maybe those
who don't truly believe the right doctrines
and keep the people who are.
It says there,
for there must also be heresies among you,
that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you.
You know, because when this happens,
even when this happens,
you're gonna be like, whoa,
I thought this person was doctrinally sound.
I thought this person was great,
but then you find out they don't even believe
in the deity of Jesus Christ or something.
You know, you find out that, man,
they believe that Jesus is the father or something.
They don't even believe in hell or something.
They believe, you know, it's soul sleep or something,
and you think to yourself, whoa, I thought this person,
well, this happens so they can be made
manifest among you of who they really are.
You understand?
And that's not popular amongst churches,
but this is biblical Christianity.
When we look at the clear teachings of scripture,
this is what the Bible teaches.
Go to Ephesians chapter four, if you would,
Ephesians chapter four.
So churches are not safeguarded from heresy.
That doesn't mean that, oh man,
we should just be worried about the next heresy
that's gonna come through or something like that.
No, obviously, as Christians, as a church,
we need to be faithful in studying
to show ourselves approved unto God,
a workman that is not to be ashamed.
I need to make sure that I'm constantly teaching
the word of God, you know, reinforcing doctrines
that you and I may already know.
And you need to make sure
that you're also studying yourself.
So it's important that you bring a Bible to church
so that you see the scriptures for yourself.
But not only that, you open up the scriptures
when you're at home as well and study on your own
in order to reinforce your biblical convictions.
And let me just say this,
you better know what you believe.
I'm not saying you have to be some, you know,
theologian or something like that,
that you have to be some scholar,
but you should know the basics of Bible doctrine
of your Christian faith.
Because number one, you gotta be able to defend it.
But number two, you know,
you don't wanna just believe in vain
and just kinda go along to get along.
Well, I just believe this
because my church believes it.
I believe it because my pastor believes it.
No, you should believe it because you believe it
and because the Bible says it.
Now, another thing that I wanna mention here
is that you need to expect Christians
to be deceived by heresy.
So churches are not safeguarded from heresy,
but you also need to expect that Christians
can be deceived by heresy.
Now, I'm painting heresy in this introduction
with a broad brush
because there's obviously different levels
and degrees of heresy, right?
But look what it says in Ephesians chapter four
to prove this in verse 13.
It says, till we all come in the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
Let me briefly explain what this is referring to.
Well, the Bible's teaching us here
is that God gives us churches.
He gives us church leaders, pastors, evangelists
to teach us the word of God
in order to perfect us in the faith.
You understand?
In other words, you should know more now
than you did when you first came to church.
And this is what church is for.
It aids you in your own Bible study, okay?
It supplements your personal Bible reading.
It supplements your personal walk with God.
It is the mashed potatoes to the main course
of your meal, spiritually speaking.
You understand?
It is the rice.
It is the sides.
It's not your main meal, though.
Your main meal should be eaten by you, by yourself,
at home when you're studying the word of God.
I'm just aiding you in that spiritual journey,
so to speak, of learning the word of God.
And it says here that this is an ongoing process
until we come in the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.
So this is a lifelong process.
We're never gonna just know everything in the Bible,
cover to cover.
Obviously, we can know the main doctrines
of the word of God,
but we're constantly learning new things, right?
And it says in verse 14,
that we henceforth be no more children.
Now, this is obviously referring to spiritual children.
He says, toss to and fro,
carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
So according to the Bible,
if you're not putting a considerable amount of effort
into growing in your faith
and your knowledge of the Bible,
you, according to the Bible,
will remain a spiritual child
and you are very much susceptible
to false doctrine and heresy.
So why?
Because you're not studying the Bible.
So anybody can just bring any false doctrine to you
via Instagram, Facebook, Reels, Shorts,
podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, X,
or whatever you wanna call it.
All these social media platforms,
they can bring you heresy,
carefully packaged as the doctrines of Christ,
but if you're not growing in your faith,
you're gonna be deceived by it.
You're gonna be tossed to and fro.
What does it mean to be tossed to and fro?
You could be double minded.
And you know what, I run into this a lot,
especially on social media.
People message me and they're questioning
certain doctrines of the faith.
Why?
Because they've been watching false doctrine
for five hours straight
and they don't know if they really believe
this particular doctrine and it's not,
they're spending five hours on a video
rather than five hours and reading their Bible.
You understand?
And so they're easily tossed to and fro,
carried about with every wind of,
every new doctrine that comes their way,
they start believing because they're not grounded
in the word of God.
Now what is that?
That's a spiritual child, okay?
That's a person, you know,
because a child is very gullible,
they're susceptible, they can believe anything,
and God does not want us to remain children in the faith.
We all start off as babes and children in the faith,
but it comes to the point
where we need to grow in our knowledge,
grow in our discernment, et cetera, okay?
Go to Galatians chapter five, if you would,
Galatians chapter number five.
Along with that, you know, babes in Christ
and uneducated Christians can be susceptible to heresy, okay?
What is a babe in Christ?
It's a person who's newly saved.
And right off the bat,
they're not grounded in the word of God.
No new Christian is grounded in the word of God,
no matter how many sermons or YouTube videos
they've watched,
no matter how much they binged on the right doctrine,
they're not gonna know everything.
They're still babes in Christ.
They're still very much uneducated
in the things of God, okay?
And let me just read to you once again from Romans 16,
and verse 18, after it says to mark them
which cause divisions, it says in verse 18,
for they that are such, listen to this,
serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly,
referring to the fact
that people who teach false doctrine, according to God,
are not serving God.
They're actually serving their own belly.
What does it mean when you serve your own belly?
It's referring to the fact
that they're serving their own self-interest.
They have an ulterior motive to teaching false doctrine
and it's not because they actually believe that doctrine
or they're deceived by that doctrine,
it's because they have some sort of motive,
some ungodly corrupt motive,
whether it's to make merchandise off of the flock of God,
it's to take advantage of people,
it's to gain the admiration of individuals.
And it says, for they that are such,
serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly,
and by good words and fair speeches, listen to this,
deceive the hearts of the simple.
Now what does that mean?
Because we don't really use that term very often today,
simple, it simply means someone who is without knowledge,
okay, gullible.
And in fact, if you really wanna get literal about it,
simple means stupid.
You know, obviously the word stupid can be more insulting,
but it literally means the same thing.
And so a person who is simple-minded
is a person who is absent of knowledge.
Therefore, they're essentially a clean slate
and that's why someone with fair speeches and good words,
listen to this, can deceive that individual
into believing false doctrine.
So what do we learn from that?
What we can learn is this,
don't be a simple-minded person.
Learn the Bible, learn doctrine,
make sure that you saturate your mind
so that you're not deceived by people with good speeches,
fair speeches and good words.
Look at Galatians chapter five,
along with this point of babes in Christ
and uneducated Christians being susceptible,
I want you to notice that in Galatians chapter five,
it highlights in verse 19, the works of the flesh.
And it specifically says that the works of the flesh
are manifest, meaning that we as Christians
have the flesh, right?
Therefore, we're not absent of earthly corruption,
so to speak, we're not absent of sin.
When you first get saved,
it's not like the batteries come included
and you're just gonna do right for the rest of your life
we always make mistakes.
We're gonna sin for the rest,
I don't know if you know this,
but we're gonna sin for the rest of our lives.
No one in here is perfect
and if you think you're perfect,
you're either deceived or you're a liar.
Because there's none that do with good, no, no.
There's not a just man upon earth that do with good
and sin is not, okay?
And the only answer to that, the solution to that,
would be for you, obviously, a person to get saved
and then you have the resurrection
where God glorifies your body,
a body that is completely absent of sin,
no longer filled with defects, it's just perfect, okay?
But that hasn't happened.
So until then, we are still susceptible to sins.
Not abominable sins,
not things that are contrary to nature,
but just sins, as the Bible says,
that are common to man.
Now look at some of the sins here,
it says in verse 19,
now the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
I want you to notice this, heresies.
So this means that Christians are capable
of believing and or teaching heresy.
So the Bible says,
it's not just like some, these wicked false prophets,
sometimes it's just Christians
who are susceptible to heresy
because of the fact that they're what?
Simple.
They're still babes in Christ.
They're very much uneducated in the word of God,
therefore they can be susceptible to these things.
Go to second Peter chapter three,
second Peter chapter three.
Second Peter chapter three.
Second Peter chapter three,
look at verse 16, it says,
as also in all his epistles,
second Peter three, verse 16,
as also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things
in which are some things hard to be understood.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable rest,
as they do also the other scriptures
unto their own destruction.
Now what is this verse referring to?
It's saying that the Apostle Peter
is talking about the Apostle Paul.
And what he's saying here is that,
you know, some of Paul's writings,
they're a little hard to understand sometimes.
And you know this, I know this,
and you're like, no, I understand all of Paul's writings.
I have no trouble, you know.
You're the person that this verse is referring to here.
Unlearned and unstable.
Because there are difficult things to understand
by the Apostle Paul.
Not everything, but there's certain things
that the Apostle Paul teaches,
it's just like, I guess this is open for interpretation
just a little bit,
because it's hard to understand these things.
So what it's saying here is that,
people who are unlearned,
meaning uneducated and in the word of God,
or they're unstable,
meaning they're not settled on what they believe,
they can easily take those obscure verses
and passages of the Apostle Paul and rest them.
What does it mean to rest?
To wrestle, to twist, right?
And notice that false prophets never go,
never use the clear teachings of scripture
to teach their false doctrine.
They always go to the obscure scriptures to teach false,
that which is open to interpretation.
Why?
Because of the fact that clear scriptures are explicit.
You don't need, you know,
10 years in theology school to understand John 3.16.
You read it right off the bat,
it's like, I know what this means.
But you know, there's some scriptures,
for example, in the book of Daniel that are obscure.
Ecclesiastes, somewhat obscure.
The book of Hebrews, somewhat obscure.
And therefore, what happens is,
they that are unlearned and unstable
will take advantage of those obscure scriptures
and twist them.
What is this teaching?
It teaches us that people who are uneducated
or babes in Christ,
can easily look at passages in the book of Hebrews,
or other books,
and easily teach heresy, okay?
And what is heresy?
That which is contrary to sound doctrine.
Go to Hebrews chapter five,
if you would, Hebrews chapter number five.
Hebrews chapter number five.
Look what it says in verse number 12 of Hebrews five.
It says, for when for the time
ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again
which be the first principles of the oracles of God,
and are become such as have need of milk
and not of strong meat.
Now obviously he's referring to spiritual meat
and spiritual milk, right?
He's essentially saying you're a babe in Christ.
And a physical baby requires his mother's milk,
but then the older you get, they can eat meat, right?
And I know some of you still drink milk,
but you know,
we'll just leave that out of the illustration for now.
For everyone that useth milk
is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe.
But strong meat belonging to them that are a full age,
even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil.
So listen to this.
According to this passage,
the Bible's telling us here that babes in Christ
are just flat out unskillful in the word of righteousness.
Now what makes them unskillful
in the word of righteousness?
Is it because they're not reading the Bible?
Is it because they're not saturated with the word of God?
No, it actually says in verse 14
that they don't have their senses exercised
to discern good and evil.
In other words, they need some sort of spiritual maturity
that comes with experience and years and age.
New Christians can just read through the Bible
as much as they want,
but let me just say this.
There are certain things
they're just not gonna understand
unless they have spiritual discernment as well,
coupled with the knowledge of the Bible, okay?
So again, just reinforcing the fact
that sometimes babes in Christ,
those who are uneducated, can often teach heresy.
Now, I do not believe that saved Christians
will teach damnable heresy,
and I'm gonna explain what the difference is
in just a bit.
I don't wanna get ahead of myself.
So another thing here is that
God commands us to educate the church about the truth.
So, you know, a lot of churches will make this mistake
and say, don't listen to so-and-so.
Don't listen to this person.
Don't listen to that church.
Don't listen to this.
Whereas what we should be doing is,
this is just what the Bible says, okay?
Let me just, let me show you the real dollar bill.
Let me show you what money really looks like,
and you study the real thing,
so therefore, when the fake dollar comes,
you can, you know, disregard it.
You know, like, oh, this is phony.
Because here's the thing.
You know, mature Christians, a pastor, an evangelist,
can't walk your hand, can't, can't walk your hand,
can't hold your hand throughout life
just kinda keeping you away from false doctrine.
So what we need to do is just educate you in the truth
and you're on your own, buddy.
Discern for yourself, right?
And that's not to say you can't ask questions
or whatever and ask for wisdom.
But you know, in general,
God wants us to be self-governing
when it comes to heresy,
that we can identify it ourselves.
And I don't, therefore, you know, as pastors,
we don't have to worry like,
oh man, are these people being deceived?
Like, I gotta make sure I, what's your history?
What's your watch history?
You know, on your YouTube, what are you watching?
What are you listening to?
I'd rather just teach you the right doctrine,
saturate you with the truth.
Therefore, when the lie comes, what happens?
You're not gonna be deceived by it.
You're gonna say, this is dumb.
This is heresy.
This is contrary to sound doctrine.
You know, I'm rejecting this.
The Bible tells us, what did I have you turn?
Did I have you turn anywhere?
Hebrews 5, go with me if you would to 2 John, 2 John.
I'm gonna read to you from 1 Timothy 4, verse 13.
It says, till I come, give attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine.
He goes on to say in verse 16,
take heed, listen to this, unto thyself,
and unto the doctrine, continue in them,
for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself
and them that hear thee.
So here's the admonition, take heed into yourself.
Make sure that you're reading.
Make sure that you're praying.
Make sure that you're asking God for discernment
and be patient as well.
Because you know what?
The Christian life is not a sprint, it's a marathon.
Takes years to grow in discernment of the word of God.
And if there's certain things that you don't understand
in the Bible, don't freak out.
A lot of people didn't understand a lot of things
in the Bible.
In fact, today, a lot of people still don't understand.
You know, sometimes it requires years of study,
years of meditation, years of prayer,
years of maturity in discerning
in order to get these things.
Let me also read to you from First Timothy chapter one.
You don't have to turn there, but you can
if you'd like to.
It says in verse three, as I besought thee
to a bystill at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some
to teach no other doctrine.
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies
which minister questions rather than Godly edifying
which is in faith so do.
So what is he saying?
Apparently, there's like a little group in Ephesus
who were involved in just teaching fables.
They were just talking about genealogies
and they weren't coming to any reasonable conclusion.
Okay?
It's not like, you know, okay,
here is the conclusion of the matter.
This is what the Bible teaches.
No, and in fact, it created more questions
which in turn creates more doubts.
And at the end of the day,
they were not being edified in the faith, okay?
He goes on to say, now the end of the commandment
is charity out of pure heart and of a good conscience
and a faith unfeigned from which some having swerved
have turned aside unto vain jangling.
So remember when I said that knowledge of the Bible
is not the only thing you need, you need a sermon?
Well, according to this passage,
knowledge of the Bible is not the only thing you need.
You need charity out of a pure heart,
good conscience and faith unfeigned.
Because if not, you can swerve unto vain jangling.
You say, what is vain jangling?
It's when people just talk about like,
moon landing in the flat earth.
Let me just be honest with you.
It's vain jangling.
And they just don't come to any reasonable conclusion.
People get upset, people get mad about it,
people just throw a fit and they're not being edified.
It's just foolish, endless genealogies.
And let me just say like,
I don't believe in the flat earth, okay?
I'm actually a mature Christian, okay?
I actually know what the Bible says about these things,
so let me just say that right off the bat, okay?
And yeah, you know what?
If you're not a mature Christian, you will buy into that
because the Bible clearly and explicitly teaches
that the earth is round.
And that's not a damnable heresy
if you believe in the flat earth.
Let me just be frank with you though,
it's a stupid heresy.
But people can turn aside into vain jangling.
Where it's just like, they're just arguing,
they're striving about, and it actually says,
desire to be teachers of the law, listen to this,
understanding neither what they say
nor where of they affirm.
You ever talk to someone that's just like,
this person doesn't know what they're talking about?
Yeah.
Like, where'd you get that from?
Like, oh, I got it from the Bible.
You don't even, where in the Bible?
I read it somewhere.
You don't even understand where you're affirming this from.
You know what it is?
Next time, just ask them this.
Well, give me the minute marker of the video you watched.
Is what you should be asking them.
Okay.
Now, this is why the Bible tells us, again,
to educate people in doctrine.
And he tells us to preach the word
to be instant in season, out of season,
to reprove, rebuke, exhort,
with all long suffering in doctrine,
for the time will come when they,
referring to members of the church,
will not endorse sound doctrine,
but will heap to themselves teachers having each in ears.
They're gonna be turned unto fables,
and they're gonna reject the truth.
So it's important to constantly talk about doctrine.
You know, we need sermons of exhortation.
If you're depressed, we need to give you steps
to get out of depression.
We need to help you with your family.
We need to help you with your child rearing.
We need to help you with just practical Christian living.
But according to the Bible,
we also need to give you doctrine.
Because if not, you're gonna believe weird stuff,
and you're not gonna persevere in the Christian life.
You know, you're not gonna lose your salvation
because you can, but you know what?
You could be made useless in the Christian life
to the Lord Jesus Christ because of your belief system.
Okay?
Now let's talk about the differences in heresy, okay?
So we just kind of went through some of the scriptures
that talk about false doctrine and what the Bible says.
What is damnable heresy?
Some would say, you know, if you go online,
different social media platforms,
they'll often say this, that's rank heresy.
How many of you have ever heard that before?
Rank heresy meaning like heresy of the highest degree, okay?
The Bible would simply say damnable heresy
and or apostasy.
What is apostasy?
It literally means to fall away, okay?
And this is referring to people who have fallen so far,
listen to this, from the right belief system,
that the only proper assessment
of their spiritual condition
is that they were never saved to begin with.
That is what damnable heresy is.
Now, let me read to you a couple verses here
because here's the thing, you know,
a lot of Christians will take offense to this
and they'll say, you know,
how can you deem someone as being unsaved
because they believe a certain,
they believe different than you, right?
Or they hold a different opinion than you.
Well, luckily, you know,
the Bible actually gives us specific markers of doctrines
to judge that by.
He doesn't want us to just, you know,
flippantly just throw that around like,
oh man, this person is a damnable heretic
or that's damnable heresy.
There's actually explicit markers to judge that by, okay?
And in fact, let me just give you one
right off the bat, the resurrection.
That is a key doctrine of the Christian faith.
And if there is no resurrection, we don't got Christianity.
We're, let's go to the beach right now
and go barbecue and just go do whatever
because we are all, of all men,
most miserable, the Bible says.
The resurrection is essential to the Christian life.
And in fact, you cannot be saved
if you don't believe in the resurrection.
Fact.
And so when the apostle Paul is writing to the church
at Corinth, he's actually dealing with this issue.
Because apparently there's people at the church of Corinth
who are doubting the resurrection.
Like, is the resurrection even biblical?
You know, is there even a resurrection?
And so when you're hearing that come out
of a Christian's mouth, who goes to the church at Corinth
who was started by the apostle Paul,
then you wonder, this person's probably not saved.
Well, how dare you say that though?
You have no right to say it.
Well, the Bible actually says in 1 Corinthians 15
that the apostle Paul says this,
by which ye are also saved,
if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain.
In other words, either you believe this or you don't.
And if you don't believe it, then you believe in vain.
In other words, you're not saved.
And there's many instances in the Bible
where the apostle Paul, you know,
basically questions the salvation of his recipients
because they might be buying into
some damnable heresy.
He even says this, I'm afraid of you.
He's not saying like he's scared of them.
He's saying, I'm afraid that you're not saved,
is what he's telling them.
So what are the markers?
Well, you can go to Hebrew chapter six
and it actually gives us a list of doctrines,
you know, dealing with salvation,
dealing with eternal damnation, meaning hell,
dealing with the resurrection,
other doctrines that we would say, you know,
oh, for sure, if a person denies this,
then they're believing damnable heresy.
And there's doctrines that are not in that list
that we would say are implied.
For example, if a Christian claims to be a Christian,
but they deny the Bible as being the word of God,
okay, then they're not saved.
Because how can you be a saved Christian
and deny the word of God?
We're born again by the word of God.
So if they're denying the word of God
to be the word of God, the Bible,
then it's like, okay, this person believed in vain,
they're not really saved, okay?
Now look at 2 John, verse seven.
Look what it says, for many deceivers
are entered into the world who confess
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,
this is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Look to yourselves that we lose not those things
which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
Listen to this, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,
hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son.
If there come any unto you,
and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed,
for he that biddeth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds.
So a lot to take in there,
but let me explain what it means.
When he says whosoever transgresseth,
it's referring to the fact that if you were to,
by the way, I did bring in,
I'm gonna use an illustration today
to help you to remember this.
All right.
Brother Gio, take this all the way to the back,
where Brother Freddie is,
and Brother Freddie's gonna hold on to this, all right?
Brother Freddie, don't mess up this illustration.
All right, let's stretch it out there.
Okay, so this line represents the doctrines of Christ.
Okay?
You know, resurrection,
salvation by grace through faith alone.
By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal damnation,
things that are explicitly laid out in the Bible.
You're gonna be standing
for the rest of the sermon, by the way.
So just, I probably should have told you that
at the beginning, but it's too late now.
God will bless you, brother.
So someone who, what does transgress mean?
It means to cross over.
To transgress, it's like,
you think of the word trespass, right?
You're going beyond the boundary that is set forth.
And so the boundary of doctrines
that a person's not supposed to cross over
to be deemed a damnable heretic
are the doctrines of Christ.
Resurrection, salvation, the word of God,
hell, heaven, the Godhead, divinity,
the sonship of Jesus Christ, things of that nature,
these are very much essential doctrines.
And the Bible tells us that if a person transgresses
and abides not in the doctrine of Christ,
they don't have God.
Now why is that?
Because no man speaking by the Spirit
calleth Jesus a curse.
In other words, a person who is saved
and has the Holy Spirit,
they're not gonna delve into these damnable heresies
because they have the Spirit of truth
dwelling within them.
And it will impede them from believing those things.
You understand?
Because sometimes people are like,
well, how do you know that you're right?
What if I have the Spirit,
you claim that you have the Spirit,
and what if I say that Jesus Christ
is not the Son of God,
but I say that I got it by the Spirit?
Here's my answer, you're lied.
Or you have another Spirit but it's not holy
because there's only one truth.
There's only one truth.
And luckily, we have a book that we can go to
to determine those things.
So it says here that if a person transgresses
and abides not in the doctrine of Christ,
they don't have God.
So you know what this tells me?
When you look at the doctrine of the Mormon Church,
they don't have God.
You look at the weird stuff that they believe,
not only did they transgress the doctrines,
they just tore through that thing.
They don't have God.
Like, well, you know, they call themselves Christians,
I think they're real meaning.
The Bible says that they don't have God
because they got involved in damnable heresy.
Jehovah's Witnesses, same thing.
Hey, Roman Catholicism, same thing.
Okay?
It says, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son.
And it goes on to say in verse 10
that if someone comes to you, you know,
knocks on your door,
and they don't bring you this doctrine
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
You know, hello, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints.
If they come to your door, it says here,
receive him not into your house.
In other words, like, come right in.
Let's talk about doctrine.
You may think that's a noble gesture,
but according to the Bible, God says, uh-uh,
that's a no-go.
That's what God says.
Because Mormons are not bringing the doctrines of the Bible.
They're bringing the other testament of Joseph Smith.
He says, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed.
So what does that mean?
It means you're not supposed to say God bless you either.
Because if you're saying God bless you,
you're basically telling them prosper on your way
as you teach your false doctrine.
Sounds to me like God is very concerned
about this particular subject.
He finds it very offensive, in fact,
if you bid them Godspeed.
Like, no, I don't think he,
I think he knows my heart, though.
Yeah, he knows that your heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked.
Who could know it?
And apparently you're just simple-minded,
according to the Bible.
You say, well, I think that's an exaggeration.
Well, let's look at verse 11.
For he that bideth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds.
Like, God's like, oh, you're saying God bless,
so what are you, a Mormon now?
So what are you, a Jehovah's Witness now?
Like, Lord, I'm not a Jehovah's,
don't tell him God bless,
because I'm not going to bless that.
And I'm not going to prosper people
who teach false doctrine or are sending people to hell.
Sounds like God's pretty zealous
about this particular subject.
Okay, let me put my foot here.
And so if we were to look at this particular rope
as being the doctrines of Christ,
go to 2 Peter chapter two, if you would.
This represents the essential doctrines
of the faith, salvation, the deity of Jesus Christ,
the word of God, eternal damnation,
the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead,
eternal judgment, repentance from dead works
and faith toward God.
By the way, not repentance from sin,
faith toward God, it says repentance from dead works
and faith toward God.
Because if we're supposed to repent of our sins
to be saved, that would be considered a work.
And the Bible says, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us.
The Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
And you're like, well, that's your private interpretation.
Wrong, it's actually found explicitly saturated
throughout the New Testament.
I mean, the entire book of John is just dedicated
to hammering in this truth,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
People have to go to obscure scriptures
or scriptures not having to do anything with salvation
to teach you that it's not by faith alone,
like James chapter two, okay?
Now look at 2 Peter chapter two verse one, it says,
but there are false prophets also among the people,
even as there should be false teachers among you
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them
and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Go to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter number two,
and then we're gonna go to 1 Timothy chapter four,
so go to 2 Timothy chapter two.
So the Bible's saying here that false teachers
are gonna come in and they're gonna privily,
meaning sneakily, cunningly bring in damnable heresies,
teaching things that are contrary to sound doctrine,
but it's not just heresy though, it's damnable heresy.
It's heresy that if a person who's in our church
is not saved and starts believing,
they die in that state, they will go to hell.
That's what damnable means.
A damnable heresy is a heresy
that will damn your soul to hell.
And that falls, or the doctrines
that fall under that category
are the doctrines of Christ, okay?
So let me just make something very clear,
going back to flat earth.
Flat earth is not a damnable heresy, okay?
Amen?
I just wanna make that very clear,
because apparently people didn't,
you know, flat earth is not a damnable heresy.
If you believe in the flat earth,
you know, it has nothing to do with your salvation,
you just need to get some smarts.
But it is heresy nonetheless though,
because of the fact that it's not in the Bible.
So you're teaching, and here's the thing,
there's people out in the world
who teach the flat earth without the Bible,
you know, that's also dumb,
but the really wicked ones are the ones
who try to use the Bible
to teach that the earth is flat.
Okay, at that point it becomes heresy.
But it's not damnable heresy,
because it actually does not interfere
with the doctrines of Christ, okay?
Look at 2 Timothy 2.14, it says,
As of these things put them in remembrance,
charging them before the Lord,
that they strive not about to words to no profit,
but to the subverting of the hearers.
Study to show thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth,
but shun profane and vain babblings,
for they will increase into more ungodliness,
and their word will eat at doth a canker,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus,
listen to this, who concerning the truth have erred,
saying that the resurrection is past already,
and overthrow the faith of some.
So when you get involved in vain jangling,
you know what it ultimately does?
It brings in heresy.
It actually grows into becoming something
far more dangerous, far more heretical,
and ultimately leads to damnable heresy.
It evolves from being just regular heresy
to damnable heresy, okay?
And so again, damnable heresy
is that which interferes with the doctrines of Christ.
Now let me get four guys up here real quick.
Let me get the first volunteer.
Who's gonna volunteer here?
Brother Alex, come on up.
Did you work graveyard last night?
No, okay.
All right, great.
I called him up one time and he had worked graveyard
and he stood up the whole time.
All right, stand down there at that corner.
All right, I need another volunteer.
Brother Maury, perfect,
because the next one is heresy.
Ha.
Come here, you heretic.
All right.
Hey, no shaking hands with sound doctrine and heresy.
What is that?
Is that ecumenical church or something?
Okay, I need one more.
I need another volunteer.
Damnable heresy, all right.
Transgress, my brother.
Hey, transgress, transgress, go under.
Don't come, come not near me.
Damnable heresy, all right.
I need one more, one more.
All right, oh man, Brother Rick, you get apostasy.
And in the words of Brother Mark,
100% reprobate right there, okay?
All the way over there.
Okay, all right, man.
So, that's what damnable heresy is, okay?
Now let's talk about the other, let's talk about Maury
who represents heresy, right?
There's not an explicit word in the Bible
to describe what he is, per se, what that heresy is,
so I would just coin it as being low-degree heresy, okay?
It's actually things that, actually I need someone else.
Give me, I need another volunteer
because I need to move around.
Brother Adrian, come on up.
I want you to hold this rope, please.
All right, and so heresy, low-degree heresy,
are things that even Christians can believe, okay?
And it's a result of not being this right here.
If you don't have sound doctrine,
if you're not growing in your faith,
if you're not learning the Bible,
you're not coming to church, you're not studying,
you could actually end up going to this part right here.
If you're unstable, you can come to this part right here.
If you are, you remain uneducated, you become puffed up,
you don't have discernment,
you can become the person
who believes in just weird heresies.
And you know, people kind of have a knee-jerk reaction
if they hear like, oh, that's heresy,
because they think heresy is a very strong word,
and it is.
Like when you say that's heretical,
they're like, oh man,
oh, it's just a difference of opinion.
But here's the thing,
if it's clearly explicitly laid out in the Bible,
and you're teaching something contrary to it, it's heresy.
Now again, there are things in the Bible
that are open for interpretation.
There are pockets of passages in end times Bible prophecy
that are open for interpretation.
However, there are other passages in the Bible,
not dealing with the doctrines of Christ,
that are still explicitly laid out.
And if you believe or teach contrary to it,
you have fallen into the realm of heresy.
You know, you are essentially inferring
certain interpretations to that scripture,
and it's not biblical.
And I know people don't like that,
they're like, well, you can't call, don't call it heresy,
it's just a difference of opinion.
No, because it's explicitly laid out.
And so if it's something that is distinctly stated
in the Bible, you can compare scripture with scripture,
we can essentially create a case in favor
of the narrative of the Bible in this regard,
and you teach contrary to that,
you've gotten into heresy, okay?
But here's the thing is that this person right here
will never transgress here if they're saved,
because they have the spirit of truth.
Now, I will say this is that sometimes Christians,
if they're not careful, can press against that.
Now, give him some pressure there.
You know, he can go a little further into it
because he could be deceived by believing
some false teacher with simple and fair speeches, right?
But you know, one thing will never happen
is that he'll never cross over,
and in fact, eventually he'll bounce back.
Because the spirit of truth will not,
because no man speaking by the Spirit
calleth Jesus accursed.
Well, that's saying call Jesus accursed.
Well, we could say no man by the Spirit
believes in animal heresy, though.
Because to call Jesus accursed is a damnable heresy.
And we could essentially allocate that same principle
to every other damnable heresy,
and say no man speaking by the Spirit
will ever transgress the doctrines of Christ.
And you know what?
The people that I've known who believed heresy,
you know, or have delved into damnable heresy,
but they claim to be saved,
eventually they actually came back
and realized like, well, that was dumb.
You know, I was deceived.
This person made this case, and I just believed them,
and then they humbled themselves.
You know, what if though, what if Maury
does go beyond this doctrines of Christ
and just remains here?
Then the biblical assessment of him would be,
oh, Maury was just never saved.
And here's the thing, people are like,
well, that's a cop-out.
No, that's biblical.
That's literally what the Bible teaches, okay?
Now, people don't like that, but it's fact.
The assessment would be, oh, you don't believe
that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God?
Okay, and you're gonna stick to that.
And that's your core belief?
Oh, you're a damnable heretic then, okay?
And at that point, he needs to cross over completely.
We remove this.
It's not like, oh, you stay there.
You know, it's not like, oh,
he was just kind of being deceived.
It's like he was never saved to begin with, okay?
But in general, there have been people
who can just press up against this,
and they press up against it,
but then the spirit of truth eventually leads them back
to the right path.
They're never gonna cross over into damnable heresy.
They're never gonna be like, you know,
hell doesn't exist.
But here's the thing.
I know saved Christians who press up against this,
and they say, well, you know,
I do think that hell is just a separation from God.
But they will say, but it is a place
of eternal fire and torment,
because they know that's fact.
But then they'll say,
but it's eternal separation from God.
But let me say this, if you only believe
that it's an eternal separation from God
with no fire involved, that's damnable heresy.
Why?
Because remember the part that I said about explicit?
Just type in fire.
Type in hell.
Type in gnashing.
Type in, you know, anything that is associated
with the concept of hell and burning forever.
How about tormented?
How about tormented day and night?
How about, you know, they have no rest day or night?
It doesn't sound like you're sleeping forever.
How about the smoke of their torment ascended up forever?
Well, that's symbolic of what?
What would you symbolize the smoke of their torment
ascending up forever and ever as what?
Folks, not everything in the Bible is symbolic.
Jesus Christ is not symbolic.
He's a real person.
Okay?
And so sound doctrine,
then you have low degree heresy,
but a person who does not abide in the doctrine of Christ
gets into damnable heresy.
They deny the Bible as being the word of God,
but they claim to be Christians.
They deny that salvation is by grace through faith
and they're teaching that.
So here's the main thing here, folks,
because there's people who are on this side
and maybe they're not saved
and they believe you have to repent of your sins
to be saved.
That person is not a damnable heretic,
they're just not saved.
However, if they make it their full-time job
to propagate that doctrine and that heresy,
then at that point,
they become the enemy of the cross of Christ.
Because there's a major difference
between the person who believes it
because they're deceived
and a person who makes it their core belief
and wants to win everyone else to that position.
That person has officially made it to a lower hell.
They've made it to a damnable heretic
because now they're propagating that damnable heresy.
They're going out of their way to damn others.
As the Bible says, they compass land and sea
to make one proselyte and when he is made,
they make him twofold more
a child of hell than themselves.
Those are the words of Jesus.
You understand what I'm saying?
And so a low degree heresy,
let me give you an example of this, okay?
Go to 1 Timothy chapter four.
Man, just hang on, all right?
Doing great.
And we gotta be careful as Christians
to not just automatically put people here
when they're actually here, okay?
Don't jump the gun on people
and definitely don't jump the gun
on putting them right here, you know?
So a person can get into damnable heresy
and eventually, if they start teaching the word of God,
they just go into 100% reparation.
Eventually, those who are here will get here, okay?
But those guys will never be here,
especially if they're saved.
They're saved, they'll never transgress
the doctrines of Christ and never go apostate.
What is reparation?
You just removed your ability
to ever be saved ever again.
Because now you've become an enemy of the cross of Christ
you've literally made it your agenda
and your identity to teach that
which is contrary to the salvation
that's clearly laid out in the Bible.
And you know what?
That makes God very angry, okay?
And so that's what apostasy is about.
So let me give you an example of low degree heresy.
Other than the flat earth and all that.
Look at 1 Timothy 4, verse one.
It says, now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,
speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with the hot irons.
What does this mean?
It means that there's certain people
who claim to believe this, who eventually moved here
and because they gave heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils,
transgressed the doctrines of Christ, made it here
and it says there that they have their conscience seared
with the hot iron, they made it to here.
Now what does it mean to have your conscience seared
with the hot iron?
Well if we were to get medical about it,
they have their frontal lobe cortex seared.
That's what it means.
It means your reprobate, your apostate, okay?
Now what are they doing now?
It says that they speak lies in hypocrisy.
So that person, brother Rick down there,
is teaching lies, I'm just kidding, in hypocrisy.
Why, because his conscience is seared with the hot iron.
Now what are some of the things that he's teaching?
Not him specifically, just this imaginary person.
Look what it says, verse three,
forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from eats.
Now he is a damnable heretic,
but what he's teaching is in damnable heresy there, right?
That would fall under this category right here,
because forbidding to marry doesn't affect salvation
or the doctrines of Christ.
It's just weird.
It's just very Catholic.
God's will is for you to be celibate.
No, God's will is for you to marry and multiply,
replenish the earth,
to have children and repopulate the earth.
Forbidding to marry, and listen to this,
and commanding to abstain from meats.
Vegetarianism.
Now vegetarianism, I know we got a lot
of carnivores here.
Vegetarianism is not damnable heresy,
but it is heresy if you're using the Bible
to try to justify it, okay?
And so vegetarianism was in the Bible,
but it wasn't there in a good light.
And if a person is teaching using the Bible
to teach vegetarianism or veganism,
it's not damnable heresy, but it is heresy though.
It's low degree heresy.
Why?
Because of the fact that the Bible does not teach
that you should abstain from meats.
And in fact, he says every creature of God is good
and nothing to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving, okay?
In other words, you can eat anything under the sun.
I don't recommend eating everything under the sun,
but you can pretty much eat anything,
and it's sanctified by the word of God
in prayer, the Bible says.
And it's not sinful to eat those things.
So if a person's saying no, it is sinful to eat that,
okay, that's just heresy then.
But we can't say that it's damnable heresy.
It's low degree heresy because it has nothing
to do with the doctrines of Christ.
To say you have to be celibate, and by the way,
isn't that popular today, the promotion
of veganism and vegetarianism?
Absolutely.
But you know what?
So is being celibate and using the Bible
to justify that.
How about this MGTOW movement,
where they're even now using the Bible
to try to justify that or something?
It's not damnable heresy, but it is low degree heresy,
and it should also be rejected, okay?
Go to First Timothy chapter six.
First Timothy chapter six.
Everyone following this morning?
So this guy's responsible for those things.
He's responsible for the forbidding of marrying,
the commanding to abstain from means
which are low degree heresies,
they're not damnable heresies.
And we need to be able to discern
the difference between the two, okay?
Look at First Timothy chapter six and verse one.
Let as many servants as are under the yoke
count their own masters worthy of all honor,
that the name of God and his doctrine be not blaspheme.
And they that have believing masters,
let them not despise them, because they are brethren,
but rather do them service, because they are faithful
and beloved partakers of the benefit.
These things teach and exhort.
So when you read those two verses,
it's like basic principles about how to treat your boss,
how your boss should treat you, right?
It's pretty simple.
Very good applicable teachings, right?
But look what it says in verse three.
If any man teach otherwise,
and consent not to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
he is proud, knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and strives of words,
whereof cometh envy, strife, railing, evil surmisings,
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds,
destitute of the truth,
supposing that gain is godliness,
from such withdraw thyself.
So he's saying, you know,
if someone comes to you teaching this stuff,
it's contrary to sound doctrine.
It's contrary to the wholesome words
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if a person is willing to just completely go against
something that's clearly laid out in the Bible,
eventually that person will evolve
into something more wicked, it's saying.
And you know, they'll say that,
they'll suppose that gain is godliness.
This is the prosperity gospel preachers.
And it says from such withdraw thyself.
So it's important for us to know this right here, guys.
Okay?
Our church wants to stay here.
You should want to stay here, grow here.
And don't think you are above coming here.
Therefore remain humble.
And you know, don't get into spiritual pareidolia,
where you just see all kinds of,
I think this picture is this and that,
because you can actually evolve into something,
you can actually start teaching something more godless
because of that.
Just be patient.
You know, in the day and age in which we live,
we have the internet, we have YouTube,
and people can saturate their minds with the right doctrine
to the point where they become proud.
And, but when you have a conversation with them,
when you listen to their interpretation,
it's like, oh, they know nothing.
They don't have proper discernment.
So Christians can get involved here.
So the way you avoid this is by staying humble,
reading the word of God, memorizing the scripture,
and just growing at your own pace.
Folks, you have a lifetime to learn the Bible.
You know, I'm in this thing, I got saved in 2007,
and you know, I've learned a lot in those years.
I haven't learned everything, but I've learned a lot.
And you know what?
There's still more to learn in the coming 20 years.
But I'm not in a rush, though.
I'm just gonna keep saturating my mind with the Bible,
keep saturating.
The reason he's here is the same reason
why the babe in Christ is here.
It's called pride.
That's what it is, okay?
But we can't place him over here.
Now, thank you, gentlemen.
You can sit down.
You can, you wanna just take that back to Brother Freddie.
And Freddie, can you give that to Brother Ulysses?
Let's give the man a round of applause.
Whoo-hoo!
You guys portrayed those cards very well.
Now, let me make one more statement here
before I finish up.
Maybe a couple statements,
but let me just make something very clear, okay?
Because I feel like I need to be explicit about this,
because if not, people can just misunderstand.
If you have, you know, a person, a pastor or something,
and they are, they believe, for example, in heresy, right?
Let's say post-millennialism,
something about end times prophecy.
It doesn't necessarily make them a damnable heritage, okay?
If they believe in those things,
it doesn't make them a damnable heritage.
Because if they claim to believe the right doctrines
regarding salvation, you know, they're saved, right?
Because that would be like a low degree doctrine,
low degree heresy, should I say.
But, let me say this.
If the person has been previously known
to teach and believe damnable heresy,
then they are damnable heretics.
Because people often say, oh, how are you gonna say,
you know, he's a damnable heretic
just because he believes in pre-millennialism?
Oh, it's not because he believes in pre-millennialism,
which is heresy.
It's because he believes in damnable heresy
about the Son of God.
All right, I'm sorry, post-millennialism,
not pre-millennialism.
It's because he believes in post-millennialism.
Sorry, it's because he believes in damnable heresy
regarding the deity of Jesus Christ.
And so, whenever I say pre-millennialism,
just switch that to post-millennialism.
So, you know, you think of post-millennialism,
amillennialism, those aren't necessarily
damnable heresies.
They're heresies nonetheless, though, okay?
And just because they're not damnable heresies
does not negate the fact that they are heresy.
So, if you have a pastor who teaches that
and you ask him about the doctrines of Christ
and they are settled on those things,
okay, he's just involved in heresy.
But if the person has been previously known
to teach damnable heresy,
he's a damnable heretic,
and no, it's not because of his view of end times prophecy,
it's because of the other stuff that he believes.
And his word will eat at doth a canker.
He will increase into more ungodliness,
which is why he's adopting a post-millennial,
amillennial view of end times prophecy.
So, even though he's like ascribing
to low-degree heresies
that are docile heresies, so to speak,
it doesn't matter because he's already on this side.
If Brother Rick here says, you know,
I also believe, you know, in post-millennialism,
it's like, yeah, you would believe in that.
Because now you're open to all kinds of heresies.
And let me say this, just because Rick,
and I'm using Rick as an illustration,
just because Rick believes in a right doctrine
that's a low-degree right doctrine
doesn't mean he's gonna come over on this side either.
So if you have a repenting your sins,
works-based salvationist heretic who's on this side,
who's been doing it for years,
that's his core beliefs,
but then he believes that the Jews
are not God's chosen people
and doesn't place them over here.
It's not like he gets a free pass to come on this side.
You understand?
So just because he believes right,
in low-degree doctrines,
when I say low-degree, I'm referring to doctrines
that don't have nothing to do with salvation,
it doesn't place them over here.
And it doesn't place the person who's over there
as an apostate believing other low-degree heresies.
It doesn't mean, oh, you're just saying that
because of his view on the end times Bible prophecy
or whatever, no, he's a damnable heretic
because of what he said previously about Jesus Christ.
You know, because of the blasphemous things
that he said about the Holy Spirit.
Because of the wicked things that he say
about the Godhead, things of that nature.
Does that make sense to everyone?
I hope I put the cookie on the bottom shelf today.
Okay, now what are we to do with them?
Well, the Bible says to call them out and avoid them.
The Bible says that we should reject them
because it says a man that is in heretic
after the first and second admonition reject,
knowing he that is such as subverted
and sinned against himself, the Bible says.
It says subverted and sinned is being condemned
of himself.
What does that mean?
It means a person who ascribes to these ideas here,
you know, people are like, you should pray for him.
You should talk to him.
Yeah, but the Bible actually says that when you talk to him
and you show them what the Bible says
and they choose to remain here,
here is the biblical,
here's what God's assessment is of that person.
He that is such as subverted,
meaning he's undermining the Bible,
he's sinning and he's being condemned of me?
No, actually it says he's being condemned of himself.
What does that mean?
It means his own words are exposing him for who he is
because out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.
He's being condemned, I'm not condemning him.
I'm agreeing that that's what he believes,
which is heresy, okay?
And lastly, obviously, if there is a heretic in the church
who transgresses the doctrines of Christ,
they get excommunicated.
He said, what about someone who believes in this area,
though, like, you know, the low-degree heresies?
They don't get excommunicated.
They just get educated.
They don't get excommunicated, they get educated.
Okay?
And so that's important to know.
And lastly, and I'm closing my Bible and I'm done,
lastly is this.
If someone says, well, I just flirt with other positions,
and then I quote you as saying flirt with other heresies,
that's the same thing.
Because a position that is contrary to sound doctrine
is what?
It's heresy.
Right?
There's just, other positions and heresy are synonymous.
Other positions are what the position of the Bible says
is heresy.
Now, in some instances, it's not damnable heresy,
it's just regular low-degree heresy,
but it's heresy nonetheless.
This is the beauty of the English language,
it's called synonyms, amen?
And I know position is not the same word as heresy,
but in this context, it definitely is.
Because anything that's contrary to what the Bible
explicitly teaches, and if you don't think
that it explicitly teaches that,
then you need to study the Bible.
At that point, it's heresy, amen?
So I hope that made sense regarding what heresy is,
what a heretic is, what a damnable heretic is,
what a low-degree heretic is,
and ultimately the goal of just being someone
who believes in sound doctrine,
someone who's sound in the faith, amen?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word,
and thank you for the explicit teachings of the Bible.
I know we got a lot of visitors here today,
and maybe some of that went over their heads,
but Lord, this is important for God's people to learn.
And Lord, I pray if there's someone here
who doesn't know beyond a shadow of a doubt
that they're saved, maybe they've heard
that you have to repent of their sins
or do good works for salvation,
that they would readily just believe what the Bible says
that all they have to do is place their faith
in Jesus Christ, to believe on him,
and they can have eternal life.
And once they're saved, they are always saved.
And Lord, I pray that you help us as a church
to keep these principles of doctrine
on the forefront of our minds.
Bless us as we go on our way,
bring us back safely here tonight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.