A Call to be Discerning - Watch out for the Dogs of False Teachers - Part 1

Alright take your Bible turn to Philippians chapter 3. I almost said chapter 2 earlier, but it is Philippians chapter 3 we're gonna be in verses 1 2 & 3 But we will not cover all of those verses and as a matter of fact We're gonna come back with a vengeance next week because there's so much that we need to learn here now tonight We will see that Paul is making a transition in his teaching in Chapter 2 Paul was about calling these believers to have the mind and the thinking and the attitude of Christ Paul was about leading these believers in the Philippian Church towards true Christianity Which can only come from having what the mind the thinking and the attitude of Christ and also in chapter 2?

Paul was about setting before them three great role models That would be Paul Paul sits himself before them first And then he put Timothy there before them and then he put a papper Ditis who was one of their own And you might say pastor. I thought we looked at three great role models or excuse me for great role models We did because we looked at the church But remember Paul was putting these three individuals before the Philippians or before the church Now last week I said that I would offer us some lessons here from these four role models and in my study I entertained the idea of having one complete message on lessons Surrounding these four role models, but I determined just to shorten that so we could continue in the verses Of course the four role models are Paul Timothy a papper Ditis and the church So real quickly first some lessons on the Philippian Church first of all they were a small church You might say pastor.

Why is that a lesson? Well? Sometimes bigger churches seem to get all the attention sometimes people can think like this well pastor We can do certain things when we get bigger well. That's not always the case the Philippian church was a small church But even though they were a small church. They were ascending church.

They were ascending church They sent out one of their very best they sent out one of their great leaders that would be a papper Ditis And they were involved in a wonderful and great missionary journey that was sending a papper Ditis to Paul They were also a sacrificing church I have said many times and we'll come back to this later on that they gave and they gave sacrificially of their money They gave they were the only church and only people to give Monetarily to Paul know what the church did Paul commended them for being very sacrificial in their giving and then I want us to see they were a submissive church Because they were submissive to Paul in his teaching they were submissive to Paul in his ministry They were submissive to those that Paul was sending like Timothy and a papper Ditis So those are some lessons there about the church and those are some things that we should yearn for in the life of our church Yes, we're small, but that's okay.

We can't make the mistake of thinking well one day when we're bigger We can do certain things. No, it doesn't matter about size and we should be ascending church We should be a sacrificing church in a submissive church But then second some lessons from Timothy really only two he was a single he was single-minded in his service to Christ We learned that last week He was single-minded in his service to Christ and we must be single-minded believers and we must be a church that is comprised of Single-minded believers. What did Paul say about all of the others there in Rome? He said they were not single-minded.

They were worried about their own lives and their own Circumstances and then he was selfless. He was selfless in his service in the church He was willing to be ordered around by Paul. He was willing to be sent by Paul. He was just selfless He didn't seem to have an attitude about these things or an opinion about these things And those are some good examples for us We should seek to be single-minded and our service to Christ and not allow the things in our lives the things of the world to crowd in And ruin our single-mindedness and our service and we should be selfless as well then third some lessons from a papper ditis He was a willing missionary was he not he was willing to be a missionary He was willing to take risks as a missionary if you do some research You can see that he traveled some 900 miles to get to Paul and that was dangerous territory You might say pastor.

It's kind of dangerous to fight fly these days Well, it might be but it was dangerous for a papper ditis to take that journey Of course part of the risk Involved being sick. He almost died. He was ill and then third he was willing and submissive He was a willing and submissive servant to Christ to Paul and to the church notice how he was submissive on three fronts to Christ to the Apostle Paul and to his church And look folks we should be like a papper ditis.

We should be willing to be a missionary You know when I went this summer to Scotland to minister to an anchored in truth minister with an anchored in truth church there and Edinburgh Scotland one one of the families in our church came up and said when can we go? And I said well you can go And one of the things that we're going to do this December is we're going to have an opportunity to see Some of the anchored in truth mission points out there and you're going to have an opportunity to go Maybe you need to be saving some money aside so you can be a willing missionary You know, it might take a risk Yeah, it might take risk And if the Lord's leading you then you need to be submissive to Christ and what he has for you there Now let's get to chapter 3 starting in chapter 3 we will see Paul make a big transition in his teaching Paul moves into Dealing with a false teaching and false teachers that the Philippian church faced But it does not appear that these things were inside the church It seems that these false teachers and their false teaching were outside of the church But if the Philippians did not handle these things properly These ravenous wolves and their false teaching would be in the church real quickly and they would be wreaking Havoc So let's look at our verses verses 1 to 3 Paul says finally sometimes that word can Give the indication that there's a conclusion.

That's really not a conclusion. Paul is basically saying the next subject finally brothers Finally my brothers rejoicing the Lord To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you Look out for the dogs look out for the evildoers Look out for those who mutilate the flesh For we are the circumcision who worshiped by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus And put no confidence in the flesh Now if we pay attention to these verses we can see that verse 1 is a transition From what Paul had been teaching into what he was about to teach and we can see see a little more of Paul's relationship to the Philippians and The Philippians relationship with Paul now notice number one Paul calls them to rejoice It's easy to see Paul calls them to rejoice finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord now I know I have said this numerous times that the theme of this letter can be seen as joy Joy in the Lord joy in serving the Lord.

I have titled this series through Philippians the joy of the Lord in all things But let's pause for a minute and notice one important detail Paul wrote about joy in chapter 1 verse 4 He wrote about joy in chapter 2 verses 17 and 18 He wrote a wrote about joy in chapter 2 verses 28 and 29 but this is the first time he has ever said be joyful in the Lord and What needs to be seen here is this? Christian joy Can only come through a personal relationship with Christ?

True joy, which is Christian joy can only come from knowing Christ and walking with Christ true joy is relational and Here I want to probe your thinking our thinking a little bit sometimes true believers can mistake happiness for joy and Sometimes true believers can believe that joy comes from circumstances even Christian Circumstances, let me give you an example We can have joy in the Lord when God provides us a good job that we love That's good. Isn't that right?

We should be happy in those things The job is the will of God and we can even serve God in that job We can love that job and be in the sooner of God's will and have joy But what happens when that job is taken away? Do we still have that joy? See if our joy comes from our relationship with our Lord first and foremost We will not lose our joy when our Lord takes away that job that he had given us But if our joy is out of balance or if our joy comes from What God has provided a little too much.

Well, we can lose our joy when our Lord takes away our job And the lesson here is this our joy must come first and foremost from our relationship with the Lord now Let me make a little confession here The reason I used a job here is an illustration about Having joy in the Lord and not just what the Lord has provided is because I struggled with that There was a time when I left full-time ministry and was in bivocational ministry And because the Lord took away that which he had given me I was in the center of God's will I struggled to have joy Because I had a little too much joy in what God had provided and I needed to have more joy in him You see so the lesson here is this our joy must come first and foremost from our relationship With our Lord and then notice number two Paul gives them a reminder Look at the verse again finally my brothers the joys in the Lord To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you Now if we pay attention we can see that Paul is writing the same things to them He says it he writes that it is no not a bother to write or to say the same things He has already said before and he even says that reminding them of these things is for their safety But two questions here first When did when did he teach them before?

Some say that Paul had written them another letter before Some say this previous teaching had to come from prah Maybe through someone like Timothy or a piperditis Some say this teaching was things that Paul had given them when he was with them before Now honestly, we really do not know how Paul taught them before But we do know that he did teach them before Because he says he did and he is reminding them of those things But the second question what was he reminding them of?

Simply we find this teaching starting in verse 2 and continuing the reminding starts in verse 2 But there are three observations about this situation that I think will help us First Paul saw that these false teachers and their false teaching was a serious enough issue To speak to them more than once about these things Evidently these false teachers and their false teaching lingered outside the door of their church Evidently these ravenous wolves had not come and gone Maybe These believers had come into contact with them. Maybe they had made attempts to get into the church.

I don't know But simply Paul seemed to see a lingering danger and a serious danger And then second Paul must have felt that the Philippian believers were susceptible to following these false teachers He must have believed that the church was in danger of accepting this false teaching or at least allowing it into the life of the church And then third the Philippian elders and believers desperately needed to see that if Paul was this serious Then they needed to be this serious.

They needed to see that if Paul had Had a had it in his mind here and he was concerned for their spiritual safety and well-being They needed to be serious So at this point We'll finally get into the heart of the teaching like I said verse 1 is a transition and really an introduction to the main Teaching where Paul dealt with certain false teaching and false teachers that propagated all of this dangerous false teaching So let's get into the teaching verses 2 & 3 Paul says look out for the dogs Look out for the evildoers Look out for those who mutilate the flesh For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ and put no confidence in the flesh Now out of these two verses I want us to see that Paul is calling or was calling the Philippian believers to two basic things Number one.

This is a call to be discerning that's in verse 2. This is a call to be discerning That's what we'll cover tonight and revisit next week and then number 2. This is a call to be Understanding and that's in verse 3 and that's what we will cover next week So this is a call to be discerning and this is a call to be understanding.

So number one a call to be discerning Now when we look at verse 2 we can see that Paul uses some strange language He warns of dogs and evildoers the King James the legacy standard Bible says evil workers And he warns of those who mutilate the flesh Also in verse 2 we can see that Paul gives one warning, but he repeats it three times The English standard says look out three times the King James says beware three times And that could lead or probably leads to an obvious question or two. Who were these people and Why does Paul warn the Philippians about these people three times?

Well before we look into who these people were and why Paul was so insistent in this morning We need to look at some very early church history from the book of Acts Now what I'm about to share with you comes from some Warren Wearsby introductory material and it really resonated with me I made some changes and and added a few things But I still want to give credit because he really did give a good early history from the book of Acts Which helped set the stage?

Gives us an understanding of who these people were But in the beginning when the gospel was being taken out into the world by the early church the gospel was taken To the Jews first we see that in Acts 3 36 so we see that the first seven chapters of acts are all about the Jews coming to faith in Christ and Even proselytes to Judaism coming to faith in Christ But starting in verse but starting in chapter 8 things changed and Acts 8 verses 5 to 25. We see that the gospel was taken to the Samaritans. Yes the Samaritans And I quote from Warren Wearsby here.

I think is accurate He says this did not cause too much of an upheaval that would be for the Jews Since the Samaritans were at least partly Jewish they were half Jew and half Gentile But in Acts chapter think 10 but in Acts chapter 10 There was a radical change and a serious change in Acts 10 We see that Peter was called of God to take the saving message of the gospel to the Gentiles and when Peter crossed that line That created a big problem in the life of the church So in Acts chapter 11, we see that Peter was called to explain why he he had even associated with the Gentiles much less preached the gospel to them and There and here was the problem for the church and for the church leaders Simply the Gentiles were becoming Christians without first becoming Jews and this was an entirely new thing for the church up to this point in the spread of the gospel and Up to this point with the growth of the church those coming to faith in Christ were Jews and proselytes to Judaism so in Acts 11 as He stood before the leaders of the church at Jerusalem Peter Explained that he had been obedient to God who had called him to preach the saving message of the gospel To the Gentiles Peter simply said he was obeying God So all those seem to be satisfied that God was about saving the Gentiles, too Now for us that doesn't seem that big like that big of a deal, but it was a huge deal But if we study the book of Acts we will see the problem did not stay settled in Acts 13 We see that Paul was sent out by the Spirit of God through the church at Antioch to take the saving grace of the gospel To the Gentiles, of course, this would be the first missionary journey started in Acts chapter 13 And then it turned into two more missionary journeys But it was not long before those strict Legalistic Jewish believers came to Antioch to oppose Paul in his ministry to the Gentiles They taught that it was necessary for the Gentiles to submit the Jewish rules in Jewish laws and Jewish Legalisms before they could truly be saved.

We see that in Acts 15, Old 1 And this led to a big disagreement in the church which led to the famous Jerusalem council that we see in Acts 15 and The decisions made there resulted in an approval of Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles They determined that the Gentiles did not have to become Jewish proselytes first before they could be saved And as Warren Wiersby says this was a victory This was a victory for the gospel of grace So after the Jerusalem council the church the church flourished and Paul's ministry to the Gentiles flourished without any hindrance Is that what happened?

No Those Jewish legalists who believed that the Gentiles must submit to Jewish rules and laws Before they could be saved were not satisfied at all Even though they failed in their opposition to Paul in Antioch and in Jerusalem They followed Paul as much as they could they followed behind Paul to try to steal away those early converts to Christ and to try to infiltrate those early churches with their teaching and Sometimes they succeeded the whole book of Galatians is all about dealing with this problem But who were these people Who were these Jewish legalists who followed Paul?

Bible scholars called them Judaizers and Their simple but fatal flaw was this they tried to mix law with grace John Gilles says the Judaizing teachers were for imposing the works and ceremonies of the law upon the Gentiles now here's the key to their error as necessary for salvation And it was this group the Judaizers that Paul was warning the Philippians about here It seems that the Judaizers were in the city of Philippi It seems that they were walking the streets of Philippi It seems that they were just outside the door of the church at Philippi It seems that these believers in the church there were having contact with these Jewish legalists Maybe I'm using my imagination Maybe they were having their own conference across town and it was rather big Now With that background in our minds and understanding who Paul was warning the Philippians about let's get into verse 2 and I want us to notice that Paul gives two calls out of verse 2 notice a call to beware Like I said earlier three times Paul calls these Philippian believers to look out the King James says beware in this literally means to look it means to have the Faculty of sight and to look but it means more it means to see and to discern accurately Now this may seem obvious enough But I want to give us an example that will help us see that we can be seeing and not seeing We can be aware but not be aware years ago When I was a youth pastor, I was out on church visitation At that time my wife and I had a Toyota Camry a little brown car And I had some guys in the car with me and we were making some visits and we drove up to the door of one of The teenagers who had visited our church.

Well on the porch there There was a sign that said beware of the dawn and on the porch. There was the dog So I looked at the guys and I said I'll show you how it's doing and I got out Well the door open because if the door is open you can get back in the car real quick Well, the dog just was wagging his tail. I said I got this So I went around to the front of the car and got between the car and the porch Well, the dogs attitude changed real quick and I ended up on top of the car Now the point of the story is this I was seeing the dog, but not I was not aware. I was not discerning.

I Should have said well they put that sign up there for a reason. Maybe the backside of the sign said the dogs friendly at first But the spiritual lesson for us here is this when it comes to false teachers and false teaching We can be seen but not be aware We can be seen but not be discerning and this is where we need God's help This is where we need the church This is where we need church leaders Now can you handle this on your own sometimes?

Yes, but many times no This is where we need God's help to help us to be seen and discerning This is where we need the church Maybe you're new in the faith and there's some older brothers and sisters that can help you here This is where we need to get better because sometimes we have a sense of discernment But as we mature in the faith that sense of discernment gets better and stronger it gets better So notice the call to beware we have to be seen and Truly seen and then notice the call to beware of those false teachers Here we see that Paul calls him to be aware of those false teachers and he describes them in three ways dogs evil diva dogs Evil-doers and those who mutilate the flesh doesn't seem that Paul was trying to win them over with flattery So let's look at these one at a time Notice the call to beware of the dogs Now here Paul is not talking about dogs like a pet dog Truthfully in their day dogs were wild animals who scavenged on garbage Dead animals and they even at times would attack people and these wild dogs roamed in packs and they could be great Problems in cities and really anywhere people gather and this may come as a surprise to the animal lovers in our day But in Paul's day these dogs were hated.

They were a terrible nuisance. They were seen as dirty scavengers and in Paul's day this word dog was used as a derogatory even Insulting term as a matter of fact the Jews called Gentiles and all non-japanese people. That's what Gentiles were dogs a Good Jewish man would get up in the morning and pray and he would thank God that he wasn't a woman Sorry ladies and he would thank God that he wasn't a Gentile which was a dog So notice how Paul turns things around This is important to see he turns things around Those who call all the others dogs were called and classified by Paul as dogs And that is what they were They saw others as dogs, but they really were the dogs and the lesson here this much-needed lesson here is this Just like these wild scavenging unclean dogs in Paul's day.

We must see that false teachers are scavenging unclean and dangerous Listen folks if an animal is dangerous. How close do you get to it? Should you look out for that dangerous animal? I'll tell y'all another animal story on me Years ago my wife and I were on vacation. I Can't remember if it was before we had kids or maybe we had left the kids with our our grandparents But we were in Tennessee and cage Cove the winter time and The Bears were out. Well, I had a video camera and I pulled up there got out and I went up to the crowd It's kind of folks watching some bears and I was videoing that bear.

I got a little closer and got in front There were people around me and another guy were walking out and getting closer and closer and without videoing that bear I was watching it eat and all that good stuff Before long I noticed that bear would look up. He didn't like me being there. I noticed I got a little further than the other fella and Then I noticed the bear looked up and charged at me little fake bluffs And I heard everybody behind me hollering.

Wow my wife's in the car screaming bloody murder and I kept getting a little closer and the bear charged at me a couple more times and then I got my eye off the eyepiece And I started looking around I realized the people were a half a mile behind me and I was about 15 20 yards from that bear. I Realized that was kind of dumb Well, what's the point? You know if an animal is dangerous, you don't need to get close to it You should look out for that animal also if an animal is a scavenger think about this Do we not see it as dirty and unclean and should we not keep our distance from an animal like that? Yes, it's dirty.

It's unclean So, what do we see here? There's the call to beware of those false teachers And then there's the call to be aware to beware of the evil doers Now notice the angle Paul takes here. He does not call out their activities But their character look at verse 2 again. He says to look out for those evil doers or evil workers So Paul is describing their character not their deeds.

We would do it the other way around He was emphasizing their character before Exposing he was emphasizing their character therefore exposing their heart and their motivations now look church false teachers always have sinful and wicked character if You get behind what they teach And what they do you will find sinful motivations and their corrupt character Remember folks these false teachers Prided themselves in their outward righteousness and they were good at it They took great pride in keeping the Jewish rules and the Jewish laws and they were good at it And it was their religious externals in their great outward performance that seemed so righteous And they were good at it and their performance in those religious externals Covered their sinful character in their wicked motivations But because Paul knew who they were he avoided what they did and went right to who they were and The lesson for us here is this always look behind the public life into the private life Always look behind someone's teaching into their private life.

I Don't know about you, but with my girls I grew up watching certain movies I Didn't get to watch boy movies. I can just about quote every line of Anne of Green Gables But we watched the old movies as well I saw some smiles I know some men in here you watch it too But one of the older movies we'd watch was the Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz and remember when Dorothy and all the other characters finally get the Oz There's the great Oz the great Oz Scary intimidating Well Toto the little dog opened the curtain and Oz really wasn't Oz it was a man in there pulling livers And it was just a little harmless old man in there Now what am I trying to show you?

Don't be fooled by the public life. Don't be fooled by what they teach Don't be fooled by what you see you got to pull back the curtain and you got to see what's in the private life You see because if you pull back the curtain and you look into the lives of these false teachers They look good on the outside, but when you pull the curtain back, it's not a little old man in there It's a wolf their dogs and these type of false teachers These would be the legalists they always have outward righteousness But behind you will find evil and evil character Evil motivations and then there is the call to be aware of those who mutilate the flesh Those you mutilate the flesh now here We see some very strange language the English Standard says look out for those who mutilate the flesh The New American says beware of the false circumcision Seems totally different the King James says be wary of the circumcision now here we have to ask what's going on here and why the different translations Paul is and was actually making a play on words a Play on the word circumcision.

There's some sarcasm here He did this on purpose in the original this word actually means a mutilation That's why the English Standard says mutilate So the English Standard version is right by saying look out for those who mutilate the flesh But the New American is right because it captures not only the physical meaning of what is said here But the actual meaning what Paul's getting at the New American says beware of the false Circumcision that's because that is what these teachers were doing. They were promoting a circumcision. It was a false Circumcision which was actually a mutilation of the body of the flesh.

I don't think I have to explain that to you Simply this is what they were doing These false teachers taught that physical circumcision was necessary for true salvation acts 15 1 we see it in Galatians 6 12 to 18 But what was Paul's response? He says their circumc- remember this was the Jewish circumcision now they could go back to the Old Testament But Paul says their circumcision was false. He says it was really Mutilation of the body of the flesh But here we must ask and answer the question If these false teachers were guilty of a false circumcision Then what was true circumcision in the Old Testament?

True Old Testament circumcision is similar to New Testament baptism Circumcision was an outward act that was supposed to reflect an inward reality Think about baptism. It's a picture of what our death our barrier with Christ and our resurrection in Christ and live a new life We go into the water representing the old man. The water is a picture of the grave We're buried with Christ. Is it that right? And then we're raised with Christ to live a new life We come out of that come out of that water as a symbol of the new life. We get it.

It's symbolic Now the brief history of circumcision goes like this very brief Circumcision had always been an essential part of Jewish life and it distinguished them as God's covenant people and true descendants of Abraham Circumcision was so important and significant in Jewish life that non-circumcised men were to be cut off from the covenant people of God But a question what did circumcision Symbolize or speak? to There's some debate here, but I believe John MacArthur gets it, right?

MacArthur says that I'm quoting circumcision graphically illustrated man's depravity Which is nowhere more manifest than in the procreative act because it is Then that the sin nature is passed on to the new generation MacArthur goes on to say circumcision was assembled picturing man's need to be cleansed from sin at the deepest root of his being He goes on to say circumcision is meaningless if it does not reflect a transformed heart So the circumcision of the false teachers was a false circumcision because it did not reflect a transformed heart Which is what true circumcision? reflected and The lesson here for us is this What is the New Testament symbol of a transformed heart? believers baptism and today if someone has a baptism that does not reflect a transformed life, it's a false baptism and Today many do the same thing as the Judaizers Follow me here.

This is important Many today do just as the Judaizers they teach that if someone is simply baptized and they are right with God In that right, oh I know you're a Christian. I was there when you were baptized But the other lesson here that we must get is this if anyone any pastor any parent any church leader anyone exercises an external religious ritual is somehow making someone right before God and That ritual does not reflect a heart transformed by God They are just like these false teachers the Judaizers. Let me give you an example baptism. I've already covered it. What about the Lord's Supper?

People who teach well, I know I'm a Christian up for taking the Lord's Supper Some people even believe that it's somehow salvific. That's what our Catholic friends do What about church membership People will say well, I know I'm a Christian remember the church You might go through all of the ritual all the externals to become a church members church member But if that does not reflect a transformed heart, you're looking at something external This is a good one a bad one the sinners prayer We don't find the sinners prayer in the Bible. Well, I know I'm a Christian.

I said the sinners prayer I've known people say I've said the sinners prayer over and over and over and over Well, if you're looking for something external to save you, you're just like the Judaizers So notice what we've seen here Paul calls these believers to be discerning seen and seen He calls them to be aware to look out to pay very serious attention To who the Judaizers they were not in the church.

Oh, but they were one step away And using graphic language he calls them dogs evil workers and Mutilators of the flesh or the false circumcision Paul was not trying to be their friend Now before I move on I want to point one point out one fact here Just like Paul had a duty to remind these Philippian believers to be discerning Just like Paul had a duty to point out these false teachers to point out their false teaching even to even call their names Pastors elders and church leaders, especially the pastor They have a duty to warn the church of false teachers and their teaching They have we have I have a duty to even call out their actions They have I have a duty to single that out and single them out Even I have to if I have to call names Even I have to if I have to point to popular people and I'm going to do that next week Why we all say pastor you sure shouldn't do that.

Why? So as to protect you So as to protect the church so as to protect our fellowship from dogs that would come in and Dogs always devour false teachers always devour and destroy Now before I make some closing comments, I want to give us the title of the message Remember the title should summarize the main message of the message And I call this this rather lengthy are called to be discerning watch out for the dogs of false teachers Watch out for the dogs of false teachers now before I close I want to point out a few facts that we all need to see and be Reminded of in these facts come out of this teaching observations.

Okay, this will serve as our conclusion first fact Healthy churches need to be discerning for false teachers and false teaching a Church never gets too healthy to be immune Healthy churches need to be discerning for false teachers and false teaching I can say it like this healthy churches should be on the edge of their seat Second fact healthy church healthy churches have false teachers and false teaching lurking just outside the door They always do the Philippians did Fact number three for the individual believer the fight against false teaching and false teachers In the fight against false teaching and false teachers the safest place to be is in a healthy church Think about these Philippians look how healthy they were they were in a healthy church They had a healthy relationship to Paul.

They had a healthy relationship to what he was teaching them so for the individual believer In the fight against false teaching and false teachers The safest place for them to be is on YouTube trying to figure it all out yourself In the church now you might be on YouTube you might need to bring that to your church and your pastor and maybe you small group leader So can you help me out here?

Fourth fact for the individual believer in the church the way to identify false teachers in false teaching Is just to know the word of God if you know the word of God when something false comes along You're gonna have an alarm go off in your mind in your heart Fifth fact the last one for the individual believer in the church the way to identify false teachers and false teaching is to see if they're teaching Through the word of God up against the word of God from the word of God And what you do there is this say I don't care how popular they are That's not in the Bible.

I don't care who loves them how big their crowd is that's not in the Bible See and again more point a couple out next week. It may surprise you So a call to be discerning watch out for the dogs of false teachers Let me pray and then I want us to look at some physical needs