From His Heart

Speaker 1

A strong grip can be a great benefit when it comes to truth. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Hey, it's really important in aviation to be accurate and true and precise. Now, we want that for our pilot.

But how much more is it important for the preacher to be accurate and precise and true when it comes to theology?

See, if a pilot is off, you lose your life. If the preacher is off, you lose your soul. And you spend eternity in a Christless hell.

It is serious business.

Speaker 3

There is tremendous truth. There is bless. There is hope that you always dream. Love. He can heal every scars of real truth. Real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, where today you'll discover just how firm a foundation you can have when you hold on firmly to the faith. In these increasingly dark times in which we live, the truth is becoming more subjective and constantly wavering to fit the culture. Pastors are watering down the gospel and presenting a warped view of God's word.

But in today's message, Pastor Jeff Shreve shares what we are to watch out for and the importance of holding firmly to God's unchanging and unshakable truth. The message we're about to hear is from Pastor Jeff's three-lesson series, Nothing but the Truth. That series is also our gift of thanks to you for your support from his heart this month of any amount. You can get it in the format of your choice, and we'll also send you the booklet Sticks and What to Do When the Going Gets Tough.

For more information, go to fromhishheart.org, or I'll tell you more later. Right now, though, open your Bible to the book of 2 John, as Pastor Jeff begins to help us realize if we are, in fact, holding firmly to the truth.

Speaker 2

In the world of aviation, accuracy, truth, and precision are very important. There is a rule that pilots know about. It's called the 1 in 60 rule. The 1 in 60 rule states that if a pilot is off on his destination by one degree, just one degree off his flight plan, for every 60 miles he travels, he will be a mile off to the left or to the right from where he intended to go. So, it's the one in 60 rule. It's really important in aviation to be spot on, to be accurate, true, and precise. Now, we want that for our pilot, but how much more is it important for the preacher to be accurate, precise, and true when it comes to theology, the things of God, and telling people how they can be right with God and how they can go to heaven when they die?

If a pilot is off, you lose your life. If the preacher is off, if the person who says they follow God and speaks for God is off, you lose your soul and spend eternity in a Christless hell. It is serious business. John lived in a time and wrote in the 90s AD when there were attacks coming against the truth of God's word. John saw the false teachers coming into the church. The church deals with two enemies: persecution and infiltration. Persecution is an outward attack against the Church and against the truth of God. The Church does really well with persecution because it tends to strengthen the Church. However, what the Church doesn't do well with is the attack of infiltration.

The devil knows that if he can't come at you externally, he can try to join you. He will come in with false doctrine, false disciples, and false apostles, trying to rot the church from the inside, much like a termite would eat away at the wood of your house to destroy its structure. That is what false teachers did, and John was dealing with that in his day. In 2 John, he hammers the issue of the truth— the truth, the truth, the truth. If you don't know the truth and if you're not walking in the truth, then you will lose the truth. The devil is a deceiver; he is a master liar. He knows that if he comes at you head-on, you will recognize it. So, he just wants to come at you one degree off, and one degree off you might not be able to recognize it. It's the 1 in 60 rule. As you keep traveling down that road one degree off, pretty soon you have crashed.

In 2 John, I will begin reading in verse one: "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 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He abides in us and will be with us forever. 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. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. And now I ask you, lady, not as writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 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. 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. Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. 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. 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. For the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Then he says, having 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 that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you."

He says in verse eight, "Watch yourselves." Be careful. Be on guard. He's giving a warning, and I want you to notice three warnings, three admonitions concerning holding fast to the truth, holding firmly to the truth, and being able to spot error when it comes, even when it comes just one degree off.

**Warning number one:** Watch out for a warped Christology. A warped Christology? What did the Gnostics bring to the table? A warped Christology. They talked about Jesus; they didn't deny Jesus. They would often talk about Jesus, but their Jesus was not the Jesus of the Bible. He was the Jesus of the Gnostic, and the Jesus of the Gnostic was not the Jesus of the Bible. John says, "Many deceivers have gone out into the world" (verse 7). Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh are the deceiver and the Antichrist. This comes from an Antichrist spirit.

In the Easy to Read version, which is a really cool version of the Bible, it translates verse 7 of 2 John this way: "Many false teachers are in the world today. They refuse to say that Jesus Christ came to earth and became a man. Anyone who refuses to accept this fact is a false teacher and the enemy of Christ." John dealt with false teachers. What did the false teachers do? They attacked the person of Jesus. Jesus is God, and he is man. He is the God-man. Any teaching that denies the full deity and full humanity of Christ, according to the apostle John, is a demonic lie.

In the first century, Gnosticism was just beginning, and it became full-blown in the second century. They were dealing with it in the third century too. What did you have? You had people attacking the humanity of Christ. The Gnostics attacked the humanity of Christ, saying that because matter is evil and spirit is good, you can't have someone who is both God and man. They said, "No, no, no, this is how it works. You guys are the Gnostics; you are in the know. You Christians are just dummies." They separated the man Jesus from the divine Christ, claiming that the divine Christ came upon the man Jesus at his baptism and then left right before he went to the cross.

John says, "If those teachers do not acknowledge Jesus as having come in the flesh, they are not of God. Those people are liars and are doing the work of the devil." Christ is God, and he is man, and he is 100% God and 100% man. It doesn't make sense to us how the Lord can be God and man at the same time, but he is. In the third century, a false teacher named Arius came to the forefront. He was big on the fact that Jesus Christ is definitely not God. He had a little slogan that his followers picked up on: "There was a time when he was not," saying that Jesus Christ is not the eternal God, not the creator God. They would deny John 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

The church would meet periodically when issues became a problem, gathering all the pastors and bishops to discuss the matter. They met in a place called Nicaea to address the issue of who Jesus is. You may be familiar with the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. This is what it says: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible." Typically, the cults and those who attack the Trinity don't have trouble with God the Father; they have trouble with God the Son.

The creed continues: "And we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds. God of God, Light of light, very God of very God, Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end."

The creed goes on to talk about the Holy Spirit: "And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeded from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church." The word "catholic" means general; there was only one church at that time. "We believe in one general church." We would call that the universal Church. It's from the Apostles. "We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, one baptism because of your remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."

That is orthodox theology. If you don't match up with that, guess what? Ding, ding, ding. What do we have for him? Joni, you're a heretic because that is the truth. Arius was kicked out, and they said, "Hey, that guy is a heretic. He is perverting the truth." According to John, "This is the deceiver and the Antichrist." It's big-time trouble when you mess with Christology because then you have, as the Bible says, "another Jesus whom we have not preached."

So, watch out for a warped Christology. Anytime the Mormon comes to your door, anytime the Jehovah's Witness comes to your door, any of these cults, they use our terminology; they have Christian vocabulary, but they don't have a Christian dictionary. When they talk about Jesus being the Son of God, it's not the same as what the Bible means when it calls Jesus the Son of God. Jesus being the Son of God means he is. They will not tell you Jesus is co-equal with God the Father.

"Oh, no, he's not co-equal with God the Father." Well, you just told me you believed in Jesus who is Lord, who is the Son of God. "Yes, yes, that's right." Well, Jesus is Lord. Know that the Lord himself is God. "It is he who has made us, and we are his people and the sheep of his pasture" (Psalm 100). "Oh, no, no, we don't believe that." They use our terminology, but they have a different dictionary, and it can confuse Christians.

Mormonism preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached. It's not the Jesus of the Bible; it's the Jesus of the cultists. The Jesus of the Gnostic is not real, and the Jesus of the Gnostic cannot save. That's true for any other cult that uses the name of Jesus but changes who he is.

**Watch out for a warped gospel.** In verse 8, he says, "Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward." 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 has both the Father and the Son. Watch out for the message. Watch out for the gospel. In essentials, unity. The gospel message is essential.

Hear and listen to what that person has to say about that because that is a spine issue. That's not an ancillary issue; that's a spine issue. The gospel message is what takes a person from being a sinner to becoming a saint, from being on the highway to hell to now being on the highway to heaven. You can't mess with that. If you mess with that, you are a heretic. He says, "If you go too far and you don't abide, you don't have God."

As we see from verses 8 and 9, as a Christian, I need to watch myself. I need to be careful to see what I am listening to, what I am accepting, and what I am tolerating. Any Christian tolerating falsehood can lose a full reward. That's what he says in verse 8. You're a true believer, but you tolerate falsehood. You think it's no big deal. "Ah, it's just a little bit of error. It's just one degree off. I mean, that's no big deal."

We're going to lax; it's just one degree off. We should get close. "Hey, you land in the ocean; that's how close you got." It matters. If you tolerate falsehood, if the church tolerates falsehood, then we will lose our reward. We'll be unfaithful to the Lord because we're to hold firmly to the truth. We're going to contend earnestly (Jude 1:3) for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Now, what does it mean that you'll lose your full reward? In the Christian life, we all have a date with the Lord called the judgment seat of Christ, where we will stand before the Lord, and he will evaluate our Christian lives. It's not a date with the Lord where he evaluates you to see if you're going to heaven or hell; it's where every true Christian is going to heaven. But your works, how you lived as a Christian, will be evaluated by the Lord.

He does it with fire. No man can build a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Christ Jesus, but he's going to put our works through the fire. You can build with gold, silver, precious stones—works that survive the fire—or wood, hay, and straw—works that don't survive the fire. If any man's works are consumed, he suffers loss. If they survive the fire, he receives a reward. But if they are burned up in the fire, he suffers loss. Loss of what? Loss of salvation? No. Loss of reward. Loss of reward. Yet he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire, the scripture says.

John is very clear: "Hey, don't tolerate this stuff. This isn't minor; this is major." If you do, you will lose your full reward. What we preach to you is that you might not lose what we have accomplished, what we set you up for—set you up for spiritual success. Any Christian tolerating falsehood can lose a full reward. Professing Christians who don't abide in the truth may not be Christians at all.

As I said before, just because a guy gets up and he's Pastor So-and-So or Doctor So-and-So or Bishop So-and-So, and he opens up the Bible and talks about Jesus, be careful. He may not be talking about the Jesus of the Bible. He may be talking about another Jesus whom we have not preached. Just because he's talking about heaven doesn't mean he's going there. The false teachers didn't come out and say, "Hey, I just want you to know I'm a false teacher. Now let's talk." They don't do that. The devil is too smart to do that.

The Bible says about the devil that he disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11 says this: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it's not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their deeds." Deceivers don't tell you they're deceivers. Sometimes people who come to your door and preach to you another Jesus whom we have not preached can be deceived and not know they're deceived.

Evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, the Bible says, deceiving and being deceived. Lots of people in cults today, it's not that they know they are deceivers; they themselves are deceived. They think they're right, but they are deceived and are deceiving other people. So, professing Christians, how do we know if a professing Christian is not a true Christian? It says that he goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ.

Speaker 1

What a great message from Pastor Jeff Shreve today from his heart called, "Are you holding firmly to the truth?" We've heard part one today, and we'll have part two tomorrow. As we've been reminded today, you and I are living in a time when God's word is being watered down and disregarded. People turn their noses up to God's truth and create their own. Are you growing in your knowledge of the Lord? Is it possible to mature spiritually without the truth? You and I need to know the whole truth now.

To help us do that, the Lord has put guardrails in place to show us the way and to protect our hearts with this truth. This month, Pastor Jeff is bringing messages about the importance and power of God's truth that can be a blessing to us if we'll apply these truths to our talk and our walk. Today's lesson is one of three in the series "Nothing but the Truth." The series is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount to the ongoing efforts of From His Heart to share the truth to a lost and hurting world.

You can get this resource in the format of your choice when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go online to fromhisheart.org and request "Nothing but the Truth." When you do that and make that gift, we'll also send you the booklet "Sticks and Stones: What to Do When the Going Gets Tough." Pastor Jeff Shreve receives no income from this ministry. All you give goes to support these broadcasts that are sharing truth, love, and hope around the world each and every day.

Thank you so much for investing in Kingdom work through From His Heart. And of course, we want to thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be right back here again for the conclusion to Pastor Jeff's series "Nothing but the Truth" with part two of the message "Are you holding firmly to the truth?" That's next time when we'll continue to open God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.

Speaker 3

There is treasury, there is bless, There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

From his heart. That is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at fromisheart.org.