HopeLives365

Mark Finley: No line of our faith that has made us what we are is to be weakened. We have the old landmarks of truth, experience, and duty that we are to stand firmly in defense of our principles in full view of the world.

Announcer: This is HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: Discerning End Time Deceptions, Part 1. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with HopeLives365 and Pastor Mark by going to HopeLives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: The Seventh-day Adventist Church today is facing a time I believe of its greatest opportunity and its greatest challenges. When you look at what is taking place in many local Adventist churches, I think you can step back and say every wind of doctrine is blowing.

You can look at a variety of topics that are taking place that are challenging local churches. Let me give you some examples of topics that can be what I would consider to be on the ultra-right and topics that could be on the ultra-left. You can go to some Seventh-day Adventist churches and there is a real debate over Trinitarianism. There is a great movement on anti-Trinitarianism—the idea that the Seventh-day Adventist Church originally did not teach that the Holy Spirit was a person and so forth. You will have that argument that some people raise.

You will go to other churches and there will be pockets of people in parts of the country that believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church ought to go back to teaching the feasts, that we have neglected that teaching and we need to go back and celebrate Passover and Pentecost. Then you will go to some churches that are on the other end of the spectrum. Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church really the remnant church of Bible prophecy, or are we one of many churches on the landscape of churches? You have all these questions raised.

You will have some pockets in different parts of the United States and the world that emphasize what is called contemplative spirituality. They see the formalism that is taking place in many an Adventist church; they look to what they would believe as a more contemplative spirituality, trying to empty their mind, to be at peace, and so forth. There is a certain element of that. There are some that would accept what they call the emerging church. What we have today is this panoply of varying issues that the church is facing.

It is not my intent this morning to take each one of these issues and deal with them in depth because any one of the issues that I mentioned might take a class of three or four hours to deal with. Here is what my intent is so you know right at the beginning. What I would like to do today is first look at some broad strokes. My objective in the class is this: by the time you leave here today, I want to give you tools and principles that will help you to be able to discern from a biblical standpoint whether something is biblically true or it is not.

Rather than try to deal with each individual issue, I would rather give you principles. It is like previously, there was a time the Adventist church said movies are wrong rather than giving our young people principles to discern why. If you say this is wrong or that is wrong, then it is always, "Well, what about the next one?" But if you underline certain basic principles that can be indicted by the Holy Spirit, then you are able to detect clearly.

So, what I am going to try to do today is share with you some of the different issues the church is facing, but particularly we are going to look at principles. Now you are looking at page one on the document, and I will go back and forth in the document. False teaching should not surprise us. It should not surprise us at all that the church at times would face false teachings or heresy. There are those people that say, "Wait a minute, if the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the true church, how could we possibly be facing this or that?"

Well, that argument could have been given in the New Testament with the Apostle Paul because the New Testament church faced false teachings. Take your Bible, please, if you have it. You may have your iPad, your iPhone, or whatever else "i" you have, but I want you to use your eyes and look at the text of Scripture and not be texting.

Acts chapter 20 we are looking at. Here is our point: false teaching should not surprise us. They did not surprise the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul had left Ephesus, and he had sailed to Miletus. He was on his way back to Jerusalem, and there in Miletus, Paul summoned the elders from Ephesus to come. He did not want to leave without giving them some counsel.

Acts chapter 20, verses 28 to 30. Notice what the Apostle Paul says: "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He's purchased with His own blood. For I know this." Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say, "I think this." He does not say, "It's likely this should happen." He does not say, "I'm going to give you some information in case this might happen." What does Paul say? "I know this, after my departing, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock."

He is speaking about persecution there, that persecution would come to the church. But then he shifts gears and he goes to verse 30: "Also from among yourselves men will rise up." Among yourselves? He is talking to the church leadership, among the elders of the church, among the pastors of the church, among the laypeople of the church, among the church at Ephesus. Men will rise up, speaking perverse things. Is perverse straight or crooked? Crooked. Speaking crooked things to draw away disciples after themselves.

"Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn you with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God into the word of His grace that's able to build you up." So, Paul says to the New Testament church, do not be surprised when heresy comes. Do not be surprised when false teachings come. Because false teachings came into the church at Ephesus, or to the church at Philippi, or to the church at Laodicea, did Paul counsel believers to separate from the body into a smaller group? Was that Paul's counsel? No.

He that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. That may be the most valuable thing you heard today. Paul's counsel to Christians was not to call Christians out from the main body of the church at Ephesus or Philippi to meet in a smaller group because certain false teachings came into the church. That was not his counsel. His counsel was to meet those false teachings biblically.

A statement you do not have in your lecture sheet that I would like you to write down—First Selected Messages, page 122: "We have more to fear from within than from without." That is a statement that we need to ponder, isn't it? The Apostle Paul would have resonated with that. As Paul talked to the church at Ephesus, that Acts passage reflects Paul's counsel. Let's go to the book of Ephesians and pick up a phrase that will become the theme phrase of our class today.

We're looking at Ephesians chapter 4, starting with verse 11: "And He Himself gave to be"—this is when Christ resurrected from the dead—"some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors who are teachers." The word "and teachers" is probably not the best translation. It's the Greek word "kai," which means "that is" or "who are," so teaching pastors. So, what's the function of apostles? Divine administrators. What's the function of prophets that have been guided with divine vision? Leadership in the church is to equip membership for service. That is Paul's point.

Now notice verse 13: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things unto Him who is the head."

Notice Paul says that we are not carried about by every wind of doctrine. In the Seventh-day Adventist Church before the coming of Jesus, every wind of doctrine will be blowing. Truth takes one form, but the devil does not care whether he gets you off on the left or the right. He does not care if he gets you off denying creation or way off on the right someplace. Truth takes one clear form, but error takes many. So, every wind of doctrine will be blowing.

Announcer: We will be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you are enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of Scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers and effectively share with confidence His life-changing truths with others. You can support this ministry and help us reach even more by going to HopeLives365.com/donate. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few, this will be our test. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan clothed in angel robes will deceive, if possible, the very elect. Who are the very elect? God's church. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. One of the agencies that Satan is going to use really effectively just before the return of our Lord is going to be false teachings.

These false teachings will enter the church and they accomplish at least four of the devil's purposes. Why would the devil bring heresy into the Adventist church? What would his strategy be? And secondly, why would God let it come? First, four reasons why the devil would bring it in. Number one: heresy often minimizes the significance of the three angels' messages and the uniqueness of heaven's last day message. If the devil can do that, he can blunt the edge of witness. Because if Seventh-day Adventists are simply one of multiple denominations, why have a passion to go to the ends of the earth to prepare a world for the soon coming of Jesus?

Number two: heresy effectively hinders mission. It takes the cutting edge off a unique movement. It also, when heresy comes into a church—and have you ever been in a local church that has been debating some theological issue? Whatever it is, whether it's anti-Trinitarianism, an issue of health, or creation, what happens when some errant theology comes in? You spend your time arguing, there is no unity, you lose your sense of mission, and you lose that warm love and commitment to the word. The unity which undergirds mission suffers.

Thirdly, heresy often undermines the authority of church leadership and casts aspersions on leadership. There are some kind of subtle heresies that give the idea that the Adventist church is Babylon and that leaders have sold out. Four: heresy will shake out of the church many people who are deceived by its falsehoods. That often happens. The church gets involved in some kind of—whether it is an ultra-liberal left or whether it is an ultra-conservative right that leads them out in another direction.

If that happens, why do you think God would allow some heresies to come into the church? Is there a ministry of heresies? If Adventism becomes Laodicean, apathetic, and complacent, God may allow heresies to come in to lead people back to their knees and back to the word. You can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. So, even heresy introduced by the devil can be used of God to lead His people to a deeper experience with Him in prayer and in Bible study.

But the devil wants to shake people out through heresy. Now take your Bible, please. Testimonies to Ministers, page 112. "When the shaking comes by the introduction of false theories, these surface readers anchored nowhere are like shifting sand. They slide into any position to suit the tenor of their feelings of bitterness." So, there is going to be a shaking, and what is going to bring that shaking in the Adventist church? False theories.

Knowing Christ, knowing His word, and knowing His last day message will protect us from heresies. Filling our minds with His truth in harmony with His church will lead us together. But there are times in a local congregation where to press our ways when that congregation is not ready for it simply divides the congregation. So, one of Satan's greatest goals is to destroy unity by bringing false teaching in. Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan.

The challenge that you and I have is to see something that is not in harmony with what we think ought to be true and say, "Ah!" and become unusually critical of that individual. The other danger is to be so asleep that we do not know how to detect what may be coming upon the church. And that is what I want to share with you in the rest of our class.

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