False Doctrine

KEY PASSAGE: Deuteronomy 6, 7

SUPPORTING SCRIPTURE: 1 Timothy 6:20 | 2 Peter 3:17-18 | 2 John 1

SUMMARY

Our children live in a culture filled with spiritual dangers.

The philosophies of atheism, agnosticism, and various other false teachings threaten to lead our kids into error and unbelief, while rampant moral corruption pressures them to succumb to sinful practices. With so much stacked against them, there’s a great need for the influence of godly fathers who love the Lord and know His Word. When the Israelites were about to cross into the Promised Land, they were entering an ungodly, immoral culture. God entrusted the fathers with the responsibility of teaching their children His commands and ways. By fully establishing them in the truth, faithful dads protected their children from the deceptions and temptations that would soon surround them.

In some ways, the cultural dangers our children face are even more threatening than those the Israelites encountered. The Hebrews lived as a separate people, never intermingling with the pagan nations they dispossessed. But today, Christians live within the culture. Many of our children attend public schools and universities that openly promote ungodly philosophies. Even some seminaries have compromised their stance on biblical truth to instruct worldly teachings.

SERMON POINTS

Since our children must deal with so many temptations and false philosophies, it’s essential that we teach them the doctrinal truths of Scripture.

Children must know what they believe in order to recognize error and defend truth. Our kids need conviction and courage, not cowardice and compromise. Furthermore, their beliefs will determine how they behave.

Basic definitions of belief systems:

Doctrine: A body of teaching used as a standard of orthodoxy. The Christian faith stands upon some basic and essential teachings of the Bible regarding various subjects. For example, we have doctrines concerning Christ, the Holy Spirit, judgment, heaven, and hell, to name a few. These are truths we need to understand in order to defend the faith.
False doctrine: A belief that does not match the Word of God. Obviously, we must know what the Bible says before we can recognize when a teaching contradicts it. Some examples of false doctrines are that Jesus was not born of a virgin or that God is not the Creator.
Heresy: A deliberate denial of revealed truth from God’s Word accompanied with acceptance of error and a self-willed opinion in opposition to biblical truth. Those who teach heresy are determined to convince others to accept their belief system, despite what the Bible teaches.

When Moses explained how fathers were to teach God’s Word to their children, he gave several examples of when to do it—while sitting, walking, lying down at bedtime, and rising up in the morning—basically, throughout the day while doing normal activities (Deut. 6:7). Talking about the Lord and His Word should be as common in our homes as discussing sports or any other favorite topic. A wise parent knows how to shift any dinnertime conversation into an opportunity for a spiritual lesson.

Although the Lord gives fathers the primary responsibility for teaching the Scriptures to their children, mothers also play an important role. In fact, many women have stepped in to train their children when the father is absent or uninterested in spiritual matters. However, Christian husbands should never relinquish their God-given responsibility just because their wives have a better understanding of the Scriptures.

Parents cannot afford to deny or ignore the sinful state of our society. The world is filled with sexual attractions, drugs, and ungodly music that could lure our children away. Cult groups offer unconditional acceptance and permissive lifestyles that appeal to the desires of the flesh. Our children will either fall for all the lies and become victims, or they will stand firm for what they believe and become victors.

We need to courageously stand for our convictions and defend our beliefs in a world that holds opposing views. This means we can’t waffle on the issue of the absolute truth of the Bible. When we live by its teachings, we are protected from the false doctrines that could destroy us. Parents are called to set an example for their children by establishing them in the Scriptures and protecting their minds from the negative influence of ungodly music and television. Our children watch and imitate us. Anytime we compromise on the standard of God’s Word, our families are weakened.

It’s time to get serious about reading and studying the Bible, learning to defend our faith, and living a godly life. We really only have two options. We either walk in truth or on the pathway of error.

The path of false doctrine:

This pathway is full of signs that clearly tell us we’re going the wrong direction.

Deception: False teachings and cults make promises they can’t keep.
Division: When family members accept false beliefs, it causes many types of conflict and separation in the home.
Disillusionment: Followers of false teachers are eventually disappointed when their leader’s self- serving motives are discovered.
Danger: Teachings that promote moral permissiveness attract those who want the freedom to do what they want. The effect of immoral lifestyles, however, endangers the future of all of our children.
Destruction: The result of false doctrine is destruction for both the family and society.

What we can do to help:

Our cultural problems seem overwhelming and beyond our ability to remedy. However, we can follow the apostle Paul’s example. He was a single Jewish man who brought the message of Christ to the Gentiles living like pagans. He had the courage, will, and love for his fellow man to do whatever necessary to bring the truth of the gospel to them. Today we live in the most threatened generation in the world, but we also have the greatest potential for reaching every person with the message of Jesus Christ through the use of technological communication.

In the face of widespread false doctrine, we can personally take steps to protect ourselves and our families from being led astray.

RESPONSE

Are you studying the Word of God each day? We each need to discover exactly what God wants us to believe and commit to live by it.
Do you refute false doctrine when you see it? We are advised in 2 Peter 3:17-18 to be on guard against error and “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Have you separated yourself from false doctrine? We should never listen to false teachers or waste our time trying to convince them of the truth if they’re unwilling to listen (2 John 1).

Copy Sermon Outline

Deuteronomy 6, 7

1 Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it,

2 so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

3 O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.

7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,

11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,

12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

13 You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.

14 You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,

15 for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

16 You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.

17 You should diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.

18 You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to give your fathers,

19 by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.

20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, `What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?'

21 then you shall say to your son, `We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand.

22 Moreover, the LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household;

23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.'

24 So the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today.

25 It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God, just as He commanded us.

1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you,

2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.

5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.

6 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

8 but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

11 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

12 Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers.

13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.

14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle.

15 The LORD will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you.

16 You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God will deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

17 If you should say in your heart, `These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'

18 you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

19 the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

20 Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.

21 You shall not dread them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

22 The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the wild beasts would grow too numerous for you.

23 But the LORD your God will deliver them before you, and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

24 He will deliver their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.

25 The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

26 You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.

1 Timothy 6:20

20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge"--

2 Peter 3:17-18

17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,

18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

2 John 1

1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.

5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;

11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.

Aired On 24 Jul 2015

False Doctrine

Our children live in a culture filled with spiritual dangers. Since they must deal with so many temptations and false philosophies, it’s essential that we teach them the doctrinal truths of Scripture.

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