SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/13/2025 8:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4
“Warn Them About False Teaching”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
2:14a
Message of the
verse: “Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the
presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless.” “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them
before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit,” (AKJV).
I will continue to quote from John MacArthur’s
commentary as I go through this introduction, and indecently I have learned
that he is now out of the hospital after having different operations on his
heart. I begin this morning by writing
about C. S. Lewis from MacArthur’s introduction to this section.
“In his fictional but spiritually
insightful The Screwtape Letters, C.
S. Lewis has an onder demon give a junior demon named Wormwood the following advice
about tempting a certain human being who has been assigned to him: ‘Your man has been accustomed, ever since he
was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing around together
inside his head. He doesn’t think of
doctrines as primarily true’ of ‘false,’ but as ‘academic’ or practical.’…Jargon,
not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church’ ([New Your:
Macmillan, 1961], 8).
“Satan does indeed know that most
people including many who are intelligent and well0educated, are more apt to be
persuaded by popular jargon than by biblical argument or actual proof—despite what
they may claim to the contrary. In the
last several centuries, the most unbiblical, humanistic, and destructive
philosophies have come through channels of higher education, including many
colleges, universities, and seminaries that claim to be Christian, and once
were. Human intelligence has never been a match for the wiles of Satan. The sinful pride of man is nowhere more
clearly seen than in exalting his own intellect over Scripture and in
considering such utter foolishness to be scholarship. Many undiscerning students line up to learn
from these pseudoscholars and have the strength of any remaining convictions
turned into weakness.
“The barrage of ungodly ideas and
verbiage that today is assaulting society in general, and even the evangelical
church, is frightening. More frightening
than the false ideas themselves, however, is the indifference to them, and
often acceptance of them, by those who name the name of Christ and claim to be
born again. Abortion, theistic
evolution, homosexuality, no-falt divorce, femina=ism, and many other
unbiblical concepts and attitudes have invaded the church at an alarming rate
and to an alarming degree. One of the
most popular and seductive false teachings in the promotion of high self-esteem
as a Christian virtue, when, in reality, it is the very foundation of sin. Such destructive notions are inevitable when
Christians listen to the world above and the Word, and are more persuaded by
men’s wisdom than by God’s. Far too few leaders in the church today can say
honestly with Paul that their ‘exhortation does not come from error or impurity
or by way of deceit’ (1 Thess. 2:3).”
“As Christians become less and less familiar with
Scripture and sound doctrine on a firsthand, regular basis, they become easy prey
for jargon that sounds Christian but strongly militates against God’s
truth. Such unbiblical and arbitrary
ideas are being ‘slain in the Spirit’ and ‘binding Satan’ frequently replace or
are valued above the clear teaching of and submission to Scripture.
“Whenever the specific doctrinal
errors were that threatened the church at Ephesus, they obviously were
serious. In his first letter to Timothy,
Paul warned that ‘the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall
away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of
demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1). Doubtless some of
those demonic doctrines already were corrupting the church there.
“In any case, Paul gives six
specific reasons for avoiding and opposing all
false teaching: it ruins the hearers (2:14b), it brings shame on the
teacher (v. 15), it leads to ungodliness (v. 16), it spreads rapidly (v. 17a),
it upsets the faith of some (vv. 17b-18), and it characterizes those who do not
belong to the Lord (v. 19).”
2/13/2025 9:13
AM
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