Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub with Pastor Jeff Ministries. On today's program, Pastor Jeff continues his message, "Understanding False Teachers," from the series "Stay the Course" and shows you how to recognize teachers who sound spiritual but are really arrogant, indulgent, and driven by greed instead of love for Christ.

Here, we're committed to equipping you with solid biblical truth so you can live boldly for Jesus. Visit PastorJeff.com and sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly email devotionals to get encouragement straight into your inbox every week. And now, here's Pastor Jeff with today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: When I hear that God calls Lot righteous, it gives me a lot of hope. It means my righteousness is not based upon my behavior. My righteousness is based on my righteous standing with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, I'm declared righteous by repenting of my sin and turning to God. He's the one who declares me righteous. The Bible says the Lord knows those who are His and the Lord sees my righteousness. Even in a corrupt generation, He is able to save me out of it because of His mercy and grace. Is that not good news?

It's easy to look at the world around us and say, "What a horrible place." God is able to see those who are righteous, who are wanting to live righteously. It says it troubled Lot's heart every day because there was nobody righteous in that city.

But instead of just destroying the city and taking Lot too, he's like, "I can take Lot out of that." My judgment will be specific to individuals. Know this: when God comes, no one will escape His judgment. Not one.

There's not going to be some trial where Jesus stands there and people plead their case and He's like, "Okay, yeah." It's over when He gets here. Now is the time to repent. Now is the time to get right. Now is the time to live righteous so that when the Lord comes, He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Amen?

So what's He trying to say here? He's trying to say there's an endgame to these false teachers. Their destruction is eminent. God sees them and it will be completely comprehensive. If the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, He also knows how to keep the unrighteous ready for a day of punishment, especially those who indulge the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority.

What's the message? If you call yourself a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you're not telling the truth, here's the message: you better repent today. You better stop speaking on behalf of the Lord today. You better find your way into a church where the Word of God is being taught and sit in front of the pulpit rather than behind it and grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message. Judgment is eminent and it is comprehensive, no doubt about it.

Now let me give you a second one. When it comes to false teachers, how the Bible describes them is insidious and carnal. Here's where you see their motivations as he begins to unpack that, starting in the middle of verse 10. Here's what he says about them: "Daring and self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angelic majesties, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord."

Here's one truth about false teachers: they're arrogant. They're brazen, they're cocky, they're pompous, they're rebellious. Listen to me. When God anoints a shepherd for His service, He anoints a shepherd for His service, but the shepherds He anoints are simply mere men. That's it.

There's nothing special about them. Yes, we can be thankful if we're in a church where a man of God is under the authority of God and is anointed by God to bring the Word of God, but that man is not superhuman. That man is speaking on behalf of the God-man Jesus Christ, who is God. Amen?

Here's the truth: what these false ones do is they're arrogant enough and self-willed enough to even revile angelic majesties, angelic beings. Now, it's interesting in the book of Jude, in verses nine and ten, you read about even at the death of Moses, when the archangel Michael and the devil were arguing over his body.

Listen to what happened. It said, "But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' But these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed."

Even the archangel Michael, one of the most powerful beings that God created in the universe, would not rebuke the devil but said, "The Lord rebuke you." Can I just tell you something? We are not called in scripture to bind Satan. You do not have the power to bind Satan. You can't bind him. What power do you have? Christ can.

When we pray, here's how we're praying. We're not praying because we have authority and we're asking God to do what we want. We're praying because Christ has authority and we're seeking Him because we're depending upon His power to do what He wants. That's what prayer is about. We're seeking Him.

Often times, false teachers will talk like they have some supernatural power. They have power over angels, they have power over demons, they have power over this. There is no human being that has supernatural power. Only Jesus Christ has supernatural power. And we seek Him in prayer for His supernatural power to do what only His supernatural power can do. Makes sense?

Even when God gifts people—man, that person can preach or that person really has a gift of compassion or that person has a gift of healing—who's the one doing it? Christ in them to the hope and glory of God. Amen? False teachers will always talk like they're special, like they're better than, like they're different than, like they have a special relationship to God that you don't have and they have authority that you don't have and they have power that you don't have because they're arrogant.

Can I say one other thing while we're on it? When you listen to a good preacher, they shouldn't have an original thought. Their main thought should come right out of this book. Amen? This does not mean they can't illustrate a point with a story.

But if you hear someone preach and they're a great storyteller and they have these incredible mysteries that they're unfolding, but they've never brought up the Bible one time and even at the end if they say "Trust Jesus" and you say "Well, they must be a Christian," think again. Your thoughts should come out of this book.

It's the daring, self-willed, arrogant, brazen, pompous, cocky, rebellious, ungodly people that preach the other way. And when you see them, just know it's insidious and it's carnal. Let me give you a second truth about them: they're ignorant. They're totally ignorant.

He says this in verses 12 and 13: "But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling (which means blaspheming) where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong."

Here's why they're ignorant. They blaspheme God with incredible confidence because what they believe that they are doing is they are hunting for an audience. They are hunting for people that will listen to them. They are hunting for a crowd who will affirm them.

The scripture is trying to make clear that while they are not speaking on behalf of God, God is hunting them. And their destruction is going to be certain because what they're speaking is not true. And you see this all over the place in our culture. You see the ignorant try to do this.

They don't realize that God is the one who they're supposed to be speaking with. And if they're not holding up the Word of God and they're not speaking this book, here's exactly what they're doing: they are telling stories, they are telling vignettes, and they are telling little ideas and little bits of wisdom so that people are like, "Oh, he's so good."

"What was good?" "That one about the puppy. It was incredible." And you close the Bible and it's like, "What was the point?" "I don't know, but he's really spiritual." False. Because what they're saying is, "God, while I stand here, shut up. Nobody wants to hear You. Everybody wants to hear me. I want all Your glory, so I want people to hear me." That's exactly what they're doing.

But they won't say that. They'll trick you into believing that what they have to say is really true. They're ignorant. Third, you'll know this because they're indulgent. They're super, super deceptive because they're indulgent.

They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you. These people are hedonists. They live for themselves. They indulge in pleasure. They're pleasure-seekers first and foremost. They want to use the ministry that they've created for themselves for their own pleasure.

Now, there's nothing wrong with enjoying life. The world is the Lord's and everything in it. Enjoy the things that God has given you and be blessed by it. These people are using their platform to indulge in the flesh so that—here's what they don't teach.

They don't teach holiness. They don't teach repentance. They don't teach heaven. They don't teach hell. They teach that you're good. And they come alongside of you, act just like you, they'll say stuff like this: "I'm the cool pastor. I get to do what you do. We're all the same. Let's just hang out, let's be good."

Because they don't want to call people to holiness because they themselves aren't holy. They don't want to call people to repentance because they themselves aren't repentant. And all they care about is keeping a crowd that thinks that they're just like them so that they can both journey to hell together.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. In today's message, "Understanding False Teachers," from the series "Stay the Course," shows you how to recognize teachers who sound spiritual but are really driven by arrogance, indulgence, and greed instead of a genuine love for Christ.

We'll return to Pastor Jeff shortly. But first, this month, Pastor Jeff invites you to rediscover what it means to live boldly and confidently in who you are in Christ. To help you do that, we'd love to send you his brand new book, "Holy Identity: Becoming Who You Are in Christ."

It's our thanks for your gift of support today to help share biblical teaching with more people seeking clarity, courage, and the hope only Jesus can give. This transformative resource shows why holiness begins with identity, not performance, and how you can walk in victory, purpose, and spiritual power. Request your copy today when you give at PastorJeff.com. Now, let's get back to Pastor Jeff for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: That's what it means to be indulgent. I'm living for me. I'm living for you to like me. And guess what? Here's what God is all about: God's all about your prosperity. And here's what they teach. They teach the very things that every unregenerate person wants.

They teach health. I mean, if I was to ask you this: who doesn't want more health? Who doesn't want more money? Who doesn't want more freedom? Who doesn't want more happiness? I want all those things. But they teach that as a bedrock and foundation of the truth. If you love Jesus, you'll have more health.

If you love Jesus, you'll have more wealth. If you love Jesus, your relationships will improve. If you love Jesus, everything about you will be better. If you love Jesus, you'll have more influence. Everything about life is good. If you're not experiencing that, it's because you don't have enough faith. Just trust God a little more, give a little more money, then you'll have everything.

It's a lie. Here's the truth: you follow Jesus, I promise you'll experience more persecution, more tribulation, more hardship, more difficulty, all those things. But here's what I'll also tell you: you'll enjoy life a whole lot more because your hope will be set on something that's coming rather than right here. Amen?

False teachers don't talk about what's coming because they don't believe it. True teachers will tell you, if you repent and believe Jesus, the day is coming you'll be part of His kingdom. If you refuse to repent and believe Jesus, you will die in your sin, and your sins will drag you to an eternal hell where you'll spend all eternity.

True teachers teach that because they love God and they love you enough to tell you the truth. But they're indulgent. Let me give you a fourth one. They're also adulterous. Notice verse 14: "Having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children."

Trained is the word where we get our word gymnasium from. They work at greediness. They see an audience in front of them as a way to fleece them and make money from them. They never stop sinning. They're adulterers.

Most cults are filled with adultery. Most men that are false teachers see women as objects and use the relationship they have from the front to have bad relationships with women who are weak. And even more than that, they're spiritual adulterers because they won't teach the truth of God's Word.

They won't teach what God wants. They won't say the hard things because deep down they don't care about God. They don't care about walking with God. They don't care about the hard things. All they care about is enjoying their life and being sensuous with the people that they're with. And friends, that's a false teacher.

And I'm not just talking about someone that's fallen before. Christians can fall. There's times where God can convict anybody's heart—you're being too greedy or you shouldn't look at that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an ongoing practice of adulterous lifestyle, an ongoing practice of greed.

And then finally this: it really sums it up, they're immoral. Notice this: "Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness." They love the wages of unrighteousness.

"But he received a rebuke for his own transgression: for a mute donkey speaking with a voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet." They're immoral. Balaam is listed in the New Testament as an example all the time not to follow. If you go back to Numbers chapter 22 and following, you can read about this story.

Balaam was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to tell him to curse Israel. And he told Balaam, "I can't say what God doesn't want me to say." So in some sense, he wasn't a false prophet, because every time that he went to curse Israel, God spoke to him and he blessed Israel, which made the king of Moab really, really mad.

One time when he set out to go curse Israel, he's on his donkey that he rode all the time and the pre-incarnate Son of God is standing there in front of him and he doesn't see it, but the donkey does. And the donkey tries to go one way, the donkey tries to go another way, and finally gets to a place where the only way for the donkey to go forward is to come in contact with the living Christ and the donkey is scared.

And he drops down. And Balaam beats him three times. At which time the Lord empowered the donkey to speak. And the donkey looked back over his shoulder and he said, "What have I done that you beat me three times?" And what's even funnier is Balaam begins to have a conversation with the donkey.

Finally God opens Balaam's eyes and he sees them. And then he doesn't do what is wrong. However, as the story continues, we see the heart of Balaam because the heart of Balaam is, "You know what? I wanted to get paid by the king. I wanted to get paid by the king because money means everything to me."

"So I can't speak bad about Israel, but here's what I can do." So he told the king, "If you can just get Israel to act immoral, they'll follow you that way. You can take them out that way." And that's exactly what he did. He was a prophet for hire. He was a shepherd for hire. He cared about money more than he cared about the message. That's what a false teacher is.

Not that pastors shouldn't get paid. Pastors should get paid. Nothing wrong with that. I'm talking about pastors that fleece people and tell people that they owe them a certain amount of money to be able to do what they do. It's wrong. It's wrong in every single way and that's what Balaam was doing.

Balaam was immoral in every way. He led God's people into immorality. And even though he didn't speak wrong, he trained people how to live wrong. So when you have arrogant, ignorant, indulgent, adulterous, and immoral people, that's how God sees them. It's not good.

And sometimes we don't see that because most of these charlatans dress really nice, are very good speakers, hold a Bible, have some truth in what they say, and when you hear them, you think, "What a nice person."

If that "nice person" is immoral, arrogant, ungodly, and not letting God speak, they're some of the most evil people on the entire planet according to how God sees them. We talked about last week how rat poisoning is 95% nutritious.

False teachers don't come and tell you, "Curse God, worship Satan." You wouldn't listen to them. They come as wolves in sheep's clothing and get you to believe that they're special, they're unique, they're not like anybody else. "They have some new ideas about God. Nobody's ever thought about this before. This is good."

If they have new ideas about God that didn't come from that book, they didn't come from God. The canon's closed. My job is not to give you new ideas about God. My job is to tell you this is who God's always been, this is who God will always be, and my job is to tell you about Him so you can relate to Him rightly. Amen?

So He teaches us this. He says their destruction's eminent, it's comprehensive. He tells them their insidious as they're being described, they're carnal. And then finally he says this: when it comes to false teachers, their delivery is invalid and corrupt. The way that they share their message and live their message, it's invalid and it's corrupt. It's not doing it the way that God wants.

Notice what he says in verse 17: "They are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved." Springs without water. You ever been really, really, really thirsty? Like really thirsty? Like so thirsty you just can't wait to get a drink of water? These are people that overpromise and underdeliver.

They're promising refreshment, they're promising water, but there's nothing there. They promise a cold shower from the cloud on an arid or hot day, but they don't deliver. They do not deliver what is promised. And here's what it says: "the blackest darkness is reserved for them."

You think about the most heinous criminals that you've ever heard about. False teachers are worse. Do you know why? Because no matter how many people a criminal, a heinous murderer kills, false teachers kill everybody eternally and take them all with them.

And from God's perspective, that's what He says. That's why He says, "Those of you who think that you're going to preach and teach on My name, you'll be judged more harshly. You better think about it."

And for those of you young men that are called to preach and teach the Word of God, be certain in your soul that's something God called you to. Make sure you can't do anything else and find satisfaction. Wrestle with that over time. It doesn't mean you're inept. It doesn't mean you can't work in the business world or can't coach or can't teach or can't be an attorney.

It just means if you did that, your soul would be screaming that I must do this. And if you're compelled to do that, then do it in such a way where you sit Jesus right here and let Him listen to every single word you're saying and make sure He's pleased with what you're communicating. That's what it means.

False teachers don't do that. They promise all this good for you. They promise all this refreshment for you. They promise all this wonderful life for you. But they can't deliver on any of it. Do you know why? Because they're not God. They're not sovereign.

"If you just pray, you'll be healed." Maybe. Maybe not. "If you just pray, God will provide that job." Maybe. Maybe not. "If you just pray, that person will come around." Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, you don't get to control what other people do. It'll save you a lot of time in the counseling office. You can't even control what you do. I can't even control what I do sometimes.

Biblical truth is, here's where your refreshment comes from: your help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. And no matter what you're going through, He can help. And He can be present, and He's there for you. Amen? That's biblical truth.

Because they're arrogant, because they promise a certain life—and if you listen to these people, here's what they talk about all the time. They're always talking about the here and now. That's all they talk about. They talk about everything every unregenerate person wants. They want a prosperous life here and now.

It's not that God doesn't prosper. God does prosper. God's blessed me beyond my wildest imaginations. God's a good, good God. But it doesn't mean that everything goes my way. And it doesn't mean that it continues to go my way.

And one of the ways that you know that you're maturing in the Lord is when things don't go your way and you still love the Lord. I mean, I've asked you to pray for my wife. I've asked you to pray for her this week as she has surgery. As a family, we've prayed. Many of you have prayed. Thank you so much.

And as I've been praying for my wife, I'm praying "Don't let it be cancer," and "let everything go well," and "make sure everything comes out of her body that needs to," and "all this stuff." And "Lord, I want her wholly, fully healed this side of heaven and quick, and get her back on her feet." And that's all I know how to pray.

But Lord, if You have another plan for my wife that I cannot understand and I don't see, I will never stop loving You because I know You're the best and You have my heart regardless of what You choose to do. Amen? That's how we pray.

And we trust and we believe God for His best, but we also believe God knows best better than we know what we think best is. And when it doesn't go our way, which many times in my life it hasn't gone my way and will still not go my way, persevering with the Lord through those things is what grows our faith and helps us look forward to the coming kingdom. Amen?

That's what biblical truth is. These guys here that preach like this, they're springs without water. They overpromise, underdeliver. "This is your life. It's always going to be good. It's always going to be great." And when it's not, they're like, "Well, just keep praying more. Just keep believing more. It will be someday." No, it won't.

They overpromise, they underdeliver. Notice what else they do. For speaking arrogance—I'm in verse 18—for speaking arrogant words of vanity. There's that word arrogant again. They speak their own words. They entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.

So they entice you. They speak arrogantly. They use their words so that they're winsome, so you may not love Jesus, but you'll really like them. You may not defend Jesus, but you'll really defend them.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, "Understanding False Teachers," from the series "Stay the Course," showing you how to recognize teachers who sound spiritual but are really driven by arrogance, indulgence, and greed instead of a genuine love for Christ.

We're glad you joined us for today's message. Before you head out, a quick reminder: when you give today to help more folks hear the truth of God's Word, we'll send you Pastor Jeff's new book, "Holy Identity: Becoming Who You Are in Christ," as our thanks.

It's a timely resource that shows why holiness isn't something you earn; it's something God declares and the Spirit develops as you stand firm in who you are in Christ. Your support helps others discover that same identity and victory. Request your copy today at PastorJeff.com. And join us next time for more bold, biblical teaching from Pastor Jeff.