False Teachers

9) Deceitful

10) Lustful

These two personality characteristics of false teachers will conclude our teachings regarding this subject. I hope you have enjoyed this series, but more importantly, that you will apply what you have learned. If you study these ten personality characteristics, you should be able to identify a false teacher of God’s Word.

First we will study the characteristic of being ‘deceitful’ and then we will conclude with the characteristic of being ‘lustful’.

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Even though almost all of us know what ‘deceitful’ means, let us take a look at a dictionary definition first. The denotation [i.e. dictionary definition] may help us with a person’s connation [i.e. what it means to you].

First we should examine the root which is deceit.

Deceit – misrepresentation; deception; falseness…………… Now we can better understand deceitful which is a characteristic of its root.

Deceitful – given to cheating or deceiving; misleading. The American Heritage Dictionary -- both definitions are from this source.

I found it interesting that these definitions have almost completed this teaching. Let’s examine, more closely what God’s Word has to say about the characteristic of being deceitful. The following Scripture is loaded with wisdom about our subject.

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; -- Ephesians 4: 14

We are to grow up in the Word and not to be babes in the Word. Because if we are not knowledgeable we will be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine that’s coming from the mouths of false teachers. You should know by now that a lexicon gives us the meaning of the words mentioned in the New Testament. Most interesting, in this verse is the word ‘sleight’. The lexicon defines sleight as dice playing or entrapping by deceit. We need to study this as related to our teaching. These false teachers are so deceitful that it is like they are throwing the dice concerning your lives. They are gambling with your welfare and your overall life. They don’t use just craftiness, but cunning craftiness. They are real sly just like Satan deceived Eve in the book of Genesis. Notice at the end of their teachings, they pass around the basket. Most, if not all, of these false teachers just want your money. And if you are a babe in Christ and you have not matured in the Word, you will be tossed back and forth with doctrine that misrepresents the Word of God. Look back at our definition of deceit. You will see three words and one of them is misrepresentation. They do not speak the rightly divided Word of God.

Study to shew [show] thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. – II Timothy 2: 15

When the Word of God is not rightly divided, it is clearly a misrepresentation of the truth. False teachers habitually misrepresent God’s Word. Why does this happen? Because they do not adhere to II Timothy 2: 15. They do not study the Word of God in its smallest detail. The believers that I once studied with did the most intricate study anyone has ever seen. They traveled to Germany and other countries to find the closest to the original texts of God’s Word. If some of the work that they did was later found not to be exactly correct, they would make an announcement to all the people in the ministry about the change in the meaning of the Scripture. Sometimes it takes God 10 or 20 years to open up a Scripture for you that you have misunderstood. It has happened to me many times. Mainly I am trying to assure you that the work that is done in this website is a result of tons of hours of researching the minute truths of God’s Word. Also, I have studied to no end on my own since I do not have a choice. When the founder of the ministry in which I studied fell asleep, many people who were not mature in the Word were tossed to and fro. It surprised me as to how many people really stood on the principles that we were taught by some of the greatest leaders in this century.

Now let’s go back to the main characteristic which we are studying and that is ‘deceitful.’

The definition states clearly that it is “given to cheating or deceiving; misleading”. These false teachers will teach you and gamble with your life and of course they are misleading you. This is the first teaching I have ever done where a dictionary states almost exactly what the Word of God says. However, Ephesians speaks much clearer as to what a false teacher will do to your life. He will toss you to and fro; he will deceive you with slyness and craftiness and I should have mentioned that he will lie in wait to deceive you. He will plan his moves and as I said before, most often, you better have your pocketbook with you. It has been offered to me to accept money for these teachings. Well, we are supposed to imitate God and Jesus Christ. I don’t know of any records in the Bible where either God or Jesus Christ asked people to pay them money for their teachings. Now don’t get me wrong, you should tithe to a church or organization that is teaching you the rightly divided Word of God. They have a lot of expenses and overhead and if you help them out, they can continue to thrive and survive. I will tell you what overhead I have. I need ink for my printer reservoirs and my wife is my IT person so I don’t need to hire anyone to get these teachings on the Internet. I am using a personal computer that I would’ve had anyway. So I do not ask anyone for money because I just don’t need it and I have very little overhead, if any. All that I want you to remember is that these false teachers will deceive you, especially if they are thriving financially on the money that you are giving them. I am going to mention this example one more time. So I will not mention names – only one example. There is a very popular female preacher that you may have seen on television. That preacher has two Lear jets and has her clothes custom-made for her TV appearances and otherwise as far as I know. Is this necessary? Is this person playing games with your mind and tossing you to and fro? Is this person misrepresenting the Word of God? Is she studying the closest to the original texts of the Bible that is still available today? I noticed in her teachings which I did listen to that she avoids major subjects that confuse many people to no end. One of those questions is Who is Jesus Christ? Is he God? This subject of the Trinity is a very serious matter as far as misrepresenting the truth of God’s Word is concerned. To say one more thing, she also avoids the subject of Are the dead alive now? I often said that why would Jesus Christ come back to raise everyone from the dead when they’re already alive? Can you see how crazy this is? Can you picture Jesus Christ saying “Oops, I must have made a mistake”? It’s beyond the point of being ridiculous and it’s very controversial in Christianity today. Séances are from the devil. If you ever attend one, you better pray like old heck to get delivered.

I think it’s time to conclude this first section and I would like to do this with what God’s Word has to say about the overall personality characteristics of a false teacher who is deceitful and misrepresents the Bible.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. -- II Corinthians 11: 13, 14, 15

I believe that God put those three Scriptures in His Word so that I can conclude the first section of this teaching. No one says it better than God Almighty.

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Lustful

Since the first section of this teaching went well, we are going to use the same method to teach some of the second, final section of this overall teaching. We will be using the same dictionary along with the lexicon and the source of our teaching which is Young’s Analytical Concordance. Remember the difference between denotation and connotation from above. We are going to examine the meaning of the word ‘lustful’.

First we should examine the root which is lust.

The dictionary (denotation) definition of lust first relates to sexual craving – excessive and unrestrained. Lust also means over desire for power, pleasure and delight. I want to bring out a difference between this modern definition and what it really means as stated in the Bible - what it means to a believer (i.e. connotation). The biblical definition of lust is rather close to the modern definition. However, I would like to point out a very simple definition of lust. Lust is over desire. It is a desire to an extreme. When we see a person that drives a brand-new car and we already have a good car, but we get this great desire to have another brand-new car just like our neighbor’s, this is a simple example of over desire and over desire is lust. We are going to go into II Peter to give a good definition of lust and the results of living a life full of lust.

We need to study the exact meaning of LUSTFUL first. It simply means to be excited by lust. People who are excited by trying to get that brand-new car that they don’t need are lustful. So we will see as we proceed, that people who have over desires for anything in this world cannot and do not keep God first. So we can say that to be lustful is idolatry. Idolatry is putting anything else first before God Almighty. Now let’s go to II Peter, chapter 2. Keep in your mind the word lust, lustful, and over desire as we study these verses. We will go over verses 2: 12 – 15, 18

But these, as a natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; - II Peter 2: 12

These are great verses here. Let’s comment on this first verse. Many of these false teachers are not even born again of God’s Spirit. God refers to these people as natural brute beasts. They will be destroyed because they speak evil of the things that they do not even understand. When you will make an attempt to teach God’s Word to an innocent person and you make up things to try to sound like you’re an intellectual, you will be taken and destroyed and you will perish in your own corruption. Watch what happens in the next verse to these people.

And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; - II Peter 2: 13

An unrighteous person receives nothing from God Almighty. What he receives comes from the present god of this world. The point that God is trying to make is that they take pleasure in what they do. They are blemishes upon your body and they are enjoying themselves while they deceive you and while they feast, or have a party, with you. They do nothing but deceive others because of their lustful ways of life. As I said before, these are the people that you want to stay away from.

Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: - II Peter 2: 14

These are very powerful verses and you should study them over and over again. These people cannot cease from sin. Can you imagine being in that state? It is where you practically have no control over yourself. The god of this world controls and influences your behavior at all times. It sounds like hell to me. And here the point is mentioned that I want to stress. These false teachers deceive innocent people. Their heart is exercised with covetous practices. To covet is very close to being lustful in definition. When you constantly covet things that you see, you want them and you are jealous of the people that have them. Later on I’m going to go over a verse that tells you everything that is in this world. There are only three things and I’ll save that for later. God refers to people many times as being children and in this case these people are cursed children. Considering everything we have gone over in all of these teachings pertaining to false teachers, I’m sure you have begun to see how devilish and sinful these people are. And they are on your television almost every day. They appear to be angels of light and are coming from hell.

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; - II Peter 2: 15

If I must say, the right way is the way you are going. You have chosen not to forsake the right way and to go astray. Those who have gone the wrong way are following the way of Satan who loves the way of unrighteousness.

You can read verses 16 and 17 but I am going to jump over to verse 18 which mentions the main personality characteristic that we are talking about in this section.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. – II Peter 2: 18

What kind of words do they speak? They speak words of vanity only wanting attention and worship from others. The word ‘allure’ needs to be understood. It means “to take or to catch as if with a bait.” Remember, that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light and he catches people with a bait. That bait is a false teacher of the Word of God. They do this by appealing to the lusts (over desires) of the flesh. Innocent people are convinced by the allure of a false teacher. It could be the huge auditorium and all the flowers and oh, such nice music. They can have a beautiful chorus all dressed up and in beautiful suits and the women – oh, don’t they look beautiful? These are just a few of the desires of the flesh that impress innocent people. No, I do not mean to sound so pessimistic and maybe some good could come out of all of this, but I doubt it. I will tell you that in my area there is a television network that shows the most beautiful nature scenes I have ever seen. There is also very professional music playing of many different types. AND every so often, a Scripture appears on the screen for short period of time. I find this television channel to be extremely beautiful and I find no fault with it whatsoever. But how often do you see this on television? You usually see the false teacher and he is going through some of the Scriptures and then before you know it, he’s talking about the Trinity. He is saying that Jesus Christ is God. Well God help him. Yes it aggravates me to a certain extent because the enemy is using all of his power lately because he knows his time is getting shorter and shorter and shorter. We need to be sharper and sharper and sharper and sharper. That is why I sit here for endless hours trying to get the rightly divided Word of God out to you so you are not deceived by these false teachers. God blesses you for following along with these teachings.

Now I would like to close this teaching with a Scripture that was taught to me many years ago. It’s just blew my mind to learn what was all in this world today. There is nothing else but these three things and here they are. First, there will be one introductory Scripture that precedes the main Scripture that I want to share which you.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. – I John 2: 15

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. – I John 2: 16

Think about it. That is all that is in the world today. You have the over desires of the flesh, you have the over desires of the eyes, and you have the pride of life, and none of it is of the true Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is all of the world and that’s all there is in the world today are these three things. Take note that the verse mentions lust in two out of three areas. People who live by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes are living only by over desires which are desires to an extreme. In conclusion, mostly all of the false teachers live by one or all three of these desires.

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God bless you and thank you for staying with me. We’ll be going into some different subjects that I hope and believe you will absolutely find very interesting.

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[This is the conclusion of the 10 personality characteristics of false teachers.]