What Do We Do About Heretical Movements? - Ask Pastor Tim

"Can you address an explosive movement

called the 'New Apostolic Reformation'?

Not many people in reformed
circles know about it,

but it's claiming many young people.

What does the church need to know

about this fast-growing movement?

And how should we respond

when genuine believers adopt

'new apostolic' teachings and practices?

There's a lot of confusion
surrounding this.

Is it just slightly off

or is it heading in a dangerous direction?

Many dear friends are involved,

so this hits close to home

as it does for many being confronted

with this new teaching."

Now, I would just say
several things about this.

Probably it's not a new teaching.

Probably it's old teachings
under new names.

That's typical with almost everything.

I don't know a whole lot

about the "New Apostolic Reformation."

And quite honestly, I don't really
care to know a whole lot.

But I would say this,

we don't need to study every new movement.

We don't need to read every new book

that comes along attacking some doctrine

or is heretical or is an aberration

or overemphasizes or
exaggerates something.

They're always around.

And you can get all the books today

on the latest thing

and it will be something else tomorrow.

But oftentimes like I say,

it's under a new name.

It's old errors.

We need to be people who know our Bibles.

And I'll just tell you this,

false religion is typically
demonic, Satanic.

What text speaks about demon doctrines?

Anybody know?

James: 1 Timothy 4?

Tim: 1 Timothy 4.

What are some of the demon doctrines

spoken about there?

James: Abstaining from marriage,

certain types of foods.

Tim: Exactly.

Demon doctrines.

We know this:

You've got these messengers of Satan.

They come as angels of light.

False religion is very Satanic.

It's very demonic.

Satan is after two things primarily:

he hates Scripture.

He will attack the
sufficiency of Scripture.

(incomplete thought)

Now look, sometimes new
movements are good.

Sometimes the new movement is the truth.

If it is, it's only new in name.

It's not new in teaching.

But sometimes, new breaks forth

from the old in a good way.

Like for instance, I remember reading

about the first Great Awakening.

Sam Waldron has written a book

on the history of Baptists in America.

And one of the points he makes is this:

after the first Great Awakening,

every major denomination
in this country split.

And what he said was

almost every denomination

produced a new movement

because the living -

those that were born
again during this revival -

couldn't stay with the old, dead religion.

And so the new thing
was actually the old thing.

I mean, it was the faith
once for all delivered.

They were embracing. They were alive.

And they were breaking
forth from the dead.

But, sometimes the new
movement is false.

But here's what you
always want to look at.

What do they say about Scripture?

And what is their actual practice

with regards to Scripture?

You could say one thing
and do another thing.

But listen to what they say

and watch what they do with Scripture.

That's the first thing.

And here's the thing,

you can say:

Oh yeah, we highly esteem the Bible.

You can say it.

Like Catholics will say it today.

But look at their history.

They killed people who printed Scriptures.

And believe me, the only reason

that they've changed now

is because it's not politically correct

to kill people who have Bibles.

And they know it.

But you watch what they do.

And just because they say:

we uphold the Scriptures -

if you come along and say,

but what the Pope says trumps that,

then what you're really saying is

there's a higher authority

and you're not really saying

that Scripture is sufficient.

And then the next thing is this:

Listen to what they say

about what Christ did on the cross.

Watch what they say about Him, His person,

and watch what they do with the cross.

And again, it's not just theologically

if you sit down with one of their leaders

and ask them to tell you.

It's the thrust of what they preach.

Listen to them.

You can say sometimes:

Well, yes, we believe that
Jesus died on the cross.

And we believe He died for sinners.

But it's not in their message.

You listen to their message
and you're not hearing it.

They're not preaching justification.

Listen, there's a lot
of circles out there,

I listened to one on
the radio the other day,

and the guy seemed to me -

now I wasn't carefully listening
to his whole message -

it seemed to me that he
was very strongly emphasizing

that you needed to live right

in order to be saved.

We want to listen for the doctrine

of justification by faith

in these merits of Jesus
Christ on the cross.

So look for those two things.

You don't need to know,

you don't need to go out and study

about the New Apostolic Reformation

or any of the other new movements.

Sometimes, you know you get lots of guys,

they like to go through college,

and they're in college and studying up:

"What's your position on this?"
"What's your position on that?"

You know what?

What they really need to be doing

is reading their Bibles.

They need to read their Bibles

over and over and over and over again.

Because what we need to be

is really we need to be like the FBI

when it comes to their training

of their agents that are all
involved in counterfeit money.

I mean, many of you have heard before,

they don't train them in
all the counterfeit types.

They train them in the true currency.

They have them so acquainted and familiar

with the true currency

that when they come
across something false,

deceptive, altered, counterfeit,

they're able to recognize it.

I can't emphasize this enough.

We need to be people of this Book.

We need to know this Book.

We need to read this Book.

We need to read this Book a lot.

We need to read it from cover to cover.

Even through the parts that you may think

at first are difficult.

Leviticus - read it.

You need to know Scripture
from end to end.

That's our safety.

It's Scripture.

Remember, Jesus Christ,

when He came face to face with the devil -

and the devil's behind
these false religions -

and what was Jesus able to do?

He was able to quote
Scripture three times.

Now He was out there
being tempted for 40 days.

Very likely, He did that for 40 days.

You just have three of them.

But He likely was out there
answering the devil

every single time.

Look, we know that he's the tempter.

If we're going to be tempted,

then we're going to
have to answer him

just like the Lord did,

and you'll have no answer for him

if you don't know your Bibles.

You've got to know your Bibles.

You've got to know how
to apply your Bibles.

You've got to be Berean.

You've got to know how to search

what people say.

(incomplete thought).

You should really be striving

to be studying all the time.

Study some books very meticulously.

Read books over and over and over.

Read your whole Bible end to end.

There's lots of different ways to do it,

but just be in it. Be in it daily.

There's no excuse not to be in it daily.

We don't live by bread alone,

we live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.

You've got to be in the Word.

If our minds are going to dwell

on the things above,

well, where do you see that?

Where do you find that?

It's in that Book.

If your mind is going to be renewed -

which that's what it's supposed to be -

and how?

Right there in Romans 12

where it's talking about
the renewal of the mind,

it's got to do with
knowing the will of God.

Where do you find the will of God?

It's not just in your conscience.

It's not in your opinions.
It's not in your whims.

The conscience is good,

but the conscience has
to be enlightened.

Your conscience needs to operate

based on Scripture.

It's needs to be enlightened by Scripture.

Listen, this is so important

because what happens is if you're
reading the Scriptures every day,

what you're doing is you're putting
that Word in your thoughts.

When the Scripture says: "set your mind,"

you need to put your
mind where Scripture is.

We read in Scripture about setting
the mind on things above.

We read in Scripture
about setting the mind

on the things of the Spirit.

How are you going to do it?

Those are the things of the Spirit.

That Book is inspired by the Spirit.

This is critical.

You don't need to read
about every new thing.

You don't need to grab every new book.

You don't need to be up on them.

Because here's the thing,

as soon as you read what somebody says -

we were dealing in the theology class

about some of the errors

that John Piper was confronting

concerning justification,

and it was interesting.

One of the books that I was
quoting to the guys from,

it actually was footnoted

that the guy holding to the error

changed his position

just from the time Piper talked to him

to the time that the book went

to the first printing.

That's the thing.

These guys are changing.

And guys in these movements -

you can talk to that guy over
there, he believes one thing;

talk to that guy over there,
he believes another thing.

Oftentimes, you can't even
pin these guys down.

People are scratching their head about

the "new perspectives,"

because all the guys holding to
the new perspectives on Paul,

they were all believing different things.

You could never peg them.

You couldn't pin them down.

And then everybody's
changing their positions.

You'll just pull your hair out

and run in circles forever and always

if you're trying to study every
false thing that's out there.

Don't do that.

Just you live in Scripture.

Be like Bunyan where when they poke you,

you bleed Scripture.

I mean, you ought to be
able to think Scripture.

You know what was said of David.

He would lay on his bed at night

and what would he be doing?

Who is the blessed man?

Who is that man in Psalm 1?

Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Tim: That's it.

Meditating upon it day and night.

That's the righteous people of Scripture.

And I know I'm talking to a number
of people here that are in it.

Don't ever sacrifice your
time in the Word.

In all of the things that
you give yourself to

and prioritize in your life,

make that number one.

What time do we have?