 Is there ever a reason not to call any of those things out, any false doctrine, any false teaching, anything that can harm the body? Is there ever a reason not to call that out or to warn the body? Well, I'm sure if you want to be disobedient. There are a plethora of people on YouTube, on Facebook, on social media who will say, we ought to probably not call out some of these people, some of these shenanigans. Yes, it may or may not be right, but who are you to say, so who are you to judge, even though they're taking that past side of context. But maybe you should just pray about it, pray for them and let God handle that. The question is, is that biblical? Because what we never see is, and I mean never, we never see them back up what they're saying with scripture. Why? Because there is no such scripture that tells us to allow people to come and deceive the body. There is no passage that tells us to allow some person, some preacher, some teacher, anyone to put heresy into the body and think it's okay and all we're to do is just pray. Where is the passage that says pray for the wolf? Where is the passage that says pray for the false teacher? Where is the passage that says pray for the heretic? There is no such thing. Now, does that mean that all we should ever do is call out people? Well, no, I don't think that either. There is no such thing, and I said before, I'll say it again, but there is no such thing as a discernment ministry per se. But if that's the label that people want to put out on them or heresy hunter, fine. I've always said this though, it's better to be a heresy hunter than hunted. The point is, and I get it, that folks may feel like, yeah, I think we're doing a little too much. Maybe we shouldn't call these things out. But you tell me, should we not call this out? God didn't tell Noah to build ark. God never asked Noah to build ark. Noah decided to build ark as his way of communicating what God revealed to him. Someone will say though, that when you call those things out though, that it's dividing the body. That's the reason why people don't go to church. Is that the reason why people don't go to church? You would think that someone in the Bible would have stated don't do that because that would cause people from not coming to the body. That would cause division. However, that's not what the Bible says. As a matter of fact, in order to ignore those things, in order to not call out someone, honestly, you want to have a positive attitude and a positive relationship and so forth. You just want to be positive all the way around. But in order to be positive and to ignore those things and to not call out, you would have to ignore all of the scriptures that Paul's put out and all of the scriptures, all of the statements, all the teachings that others have put out. And we're going to look at those just a little bit. Before we do, I want you to notice some of the people that are saying some of these things. I heard there's a song that says Tequila makes your clothes come off. I have no idea how I got on this. All of these are preposterous and what I have not done is I have not put in any false prophecies because that's a whole other issue. We've got people that would rather defend the false prophet with the false prophecies rather than defend the text. But if you notice those people, and this is why it's important, if you notice that all of those people, they have a large following. If you want to be popular, if you want to get a large following, twist the text, be worldly, go against what the scriptures say, and then all you have to do is sit back and wait for people who don't know the scriptures to come and defend them or defend you and attack the people who are holding themselves to the scriptures. The church is not divided nor will it ever be divided when people call out false teachings and false prophets. The church will never be divided about that. As a matter of fact, it's literally a command to do so. What does Paul say in Romans 1670? He says, I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissension. Some would say divisions and hindrances. Look what he says. Contrary to teachings which you have learned and turned away from them. So turn away from those people who do those. Well, should you turn away by yourself or should you also expose people? Should you warn the flock? You absolutely should. Again, to not do so and then even to call out the people that call out that stuff that warn you, then what you will really be doing is going against the scriptures. You would have to literally ignore all the teachings of Paul. You remember Paul? He wrote almost half the New Testament in his dying letter in 2 Timothy 4. Notice how he starts it off. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ to do what? To preach the word. Preach the word. He says, when? In season of out. Notice how he says so? Reprove. If there are going to be some folks, you're going to have to prove that they're wrong. Maybe you're wrong. Someone has to prove that to you. Paul commands us to do so. He says, rebuke. There will be those who are saying things that need to be rebuke for. You know, people that say this sort of thing. The biggest lie you are ever told is that if it doesn't line up with scripture, it's not from God. That is the biggest lie you're ever told. Do you know the most profound challenge with that? Adam did not have a body. And in doing so, we should also encourage as well as exhort. And how long should we do all of these things? How often should we reprove? How often should we rebuke? How often should we encourage? Well, we'll say encourage all the time. The same goes for the other. Paul says to do all of those things constantly. It's not that you do it one time and once is enough. Warning once in a while. No, he says with great patience and instruction. Why? For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. That's happening now. They will have itching ears and they will find people to preach or teach what they want to hear. They like what I say because I'm saying what they feel. I'm stretching their The fact of the matter is foolishness sells. Don't believe me? Ask one of the greatest purveyors of foolishness. So you're doing all these things to sell your name by doing things that are controversial? There's a strategy to my foolishness. You agree there's foolishness in it? Yes. Foolishness sells more than wisdom. So are you foolish? Of course. Now notice what Paul is doing. Paul is literally on his death bed. Paul is speaking about going to be with a father but he makes a statement as he's leaving. He says, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering and my time of departure has come. So he knows he's about to die. He says, I fought the fight. Good fight. I have finished the I have finished the course and I've kept the faith. He has kept the tenets of the faith, not having faith, but the faith, the the different articles of tamed piston, which is the faith. In other words, Paul is saying, I have kept what the word says. I have kept the tenets. All of the words, the doctrines and so forth, I have kept. Remember Paul is speaking about keeping sound doctrine and on his way out, interestingly enough, what does Paul say? Paul gives his final concerns and Paul speaks about those who have departed, but more than the point he says in verse 14, he says, Alexander the coppersmith did me harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Why says, beware of him because he has vigorously opposed our teaching, our message on his death bed. Paul makes mention of a person by name and why so? Because he's opposing the teaching. That's what we're supposed to do. That is a command, ladies and gentlemen. You said these people are weapons. And whether it be bad doctrine or sin, Paul says to expose those things, have no dealings with it, have no participation in those things, but rather expose those things. And so why should we not call them out? Your whole pornography thing you think like no one knows it. God's watching it with you. He waits till you reach climax. If the only desire to know me, I would be his climax. Again, you would have to have a healthy appetite for heresy, a healthy appetite for bad teaching, a healthy appetite for people being misled. You would have to absolutely love the wolf and have a problem with the word of God to make a statement to say that we should not call out any bad teachings, false teachings, false prophets. Now, we know we're in a place in time where we're going to have nothing but bad doctrine. Some of the largest denominations are fueled by bad teaching, bad doctrine. Why? Because Paul says they will enjoy that. And then what does he call that? Paul says to Timothy, he's warning to Timothy, he says, in the latter times, which by the way, this is now, some will fall away from the faith. Again, not from having faith. There's no such passage that says that someone will fall away from having faith, but falling away from the faith, the actual tenets our core believes. He says, what will they do? Pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. They will pay attention to different doctrines, and that's the point. And I get, we should welcome in brothers with open arms and so forth and have fellowship, we should. But when someone says something, something like this, I don't know what your vision of the church is, but we have decided that no matter your race, your age, your gender, no matter who you love, you are the thing that God had in mind when she looked out over the world. We should go and investigate it. Paul, who is the one speaking about being on guard about bad doctrine and teaching sound doctrine, when he was the recipient of someone going and checking his work, he'd never problem with that. How do I know? Because in Act 17, he goes to Berea, says the brethren immediately sent Paul in silence, awake by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now, these were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica. Why? For they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. And so let's just take it. Let's look at it and see and make sure if it's so amen, if it's not, then we're going to say something about it. And so if Paul didn't have a problem having his words being examined, why should anyone else? Why should you be upset because someone said, Hey, let's take a look at this. For the sake of unity, no, we can't be unified when there's no truth. We've covered before, but Jude says that I want to write you about our common salvation. But what I really need to find, I need to write you for the necessity, is to tell you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all hand down to the saints. Why? For certain people have crept in unnoticed those who long beforehand been marked out for this kind of nation, ungodly persons. Now, the point is, the question is, how can a person creep in amongst the assembly, amongst the believers, if he doesn't look like a believer? He creeps in unnoticed, or she creeps in nowadays unnoticed because they look sound act like a believer when they absolutely are not. How do we know if they are not? Well, we can do what John says, because not only does Paul give a warning, not only does Luke give a warning about what happened with Paul, not only does Jude give a warning, but so too does John. John said, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether they are from God. Why? Because many false prophets have gone on to the world. How do you test it? Well, test it with the word, do what the Bereans did, but it was not just Paul who gave a warning. It was not just Luke who gave a warning. It was not just Jude who gave a warning. It was not just John, but also Peter. Peter says, but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. Now, he gives some other things, but they will do these things. Why? Because they are working in leagues with another master, with someone else. And their goal is to divide the body. It's not calling them out that's going to divide the body. What's going to divide the body are these destructive heresies that they want to bring in. And so we see all this foolishness. We see the false prophets. We see the bad doctrine. And we think, well, it's okay. Who are you to judge? Well, you would think it'd be enough just to look at all the passages from all of the leaders of the church, the early church, the founding church, the apostles and so forth, and the writers. And you would think that would be enough. But if that's not enough for you, even Jesus himself warned. He says in Matthew 24, 11, he says also later on in Matthew 24, many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. So if you think that it's not a problem, we'll then consult Jesus. Jesus says that they will arise. And so why is he telling us to? Well, just to let them know, the goal is to protect the flock. As a matter of fact, Acts 20 tells the leaders of the church to guard the flock that was purchased by the blood of God by his own blood. And so you say, someone would say, leave them alone. Well, I say to you, you might want to read your scriptures. As a matter of fact, I say to you, stop warning people against those that are warning against danger. Here's the question. If there's someone out there that's going to do harm to a child or to a person, shouldn't we know that there's danger out there? Shouldn't we know that there's danger out there? Should we also know the name of the person? Should we know where the person is, where this danger is located? Should we know what the person looks like? Sure. Otherwise, all we've done was just give an empty warning. No one knows, but it helps to know if there's a potential predator. For example, after a child, who this person is, what they've done, where they are. Those things are beneficial. The same thing with the Bible. Again, every writer in the Bible and every New Testament writing, except for maybe two books, have a warning against false teachers or false teaching. And so to say that we should not call out bad teaching, bad doctrine, false teachers, false prophets would be to go literally against what the scriptures say. So should we stop calling out false teachers and false prophets? Should we get rid of call out culture in the church? Well, yeah, only if you want to disobey the Bible.