Beware of False Ministers

Romans 16:17-20
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, November 04, 2012
Copyright © 2012, P. G. Mathew

Romans 16:17–20 is a warning against false ministers. The devil tempted me many years ago, saying, “Why do you have to preach the narrow way of Christianity? Why don’t you preach about life on the easy street, on the broad way of autonomy? You know rich Americans like to sin and have fun. Why don’t you go easy on sin and build a big church, make a lot of money and live a life of fame, luxury, and self-indulgence?” I said, “No. It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’” I said, “I must preach the word.”

As a true pastor who loved the church of Rome, Paul greeted the saints in love (Rom. 16:3–16). Now in Romans 16:17–20, the apostle in love is warning the church about errorists, agents of Satan, who would surely come as wolves in sheep’s clothing to deceive the church. So here we see that true love greets, true love sends kisses, and true love also warns the loved ones of dangers ahead.

All Scripture is God’s word, and all Scripture is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness for God’s people (2 Tim. 3:16–17). So our text is profitable for our warning. Pastors are to correct, rebuke, warn, encourage, and instruct their people with great patience, “for,” as Paul says, “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:3).

Not all of God’s saints are mature and therefore competent to counsel. Some are immature and gullible. And the devil, like a roaring lion, prowls around even in the church, looking for people to devour—gullible people, who live by emotion and never work hard to know the Scripture and the way of salvation. But we are to resist the devil and stand firm in the true, apostolic doctrine. Therefore let us examine this portion of Scripture to understand how to recognize false teachers and how to stand up against them.

I. Watch Out!

Paul begins, “I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned” (v. 17). We must be on the lookout for false preachers. So the apostle exhorts the church to be watchful continually, as watchmen watch a city night and day.

This exhortation is applicable to everyone in the church, but especially to leaders like parents, pastors, and teachers. They are to observe everything through the scope of Scripture. They are to watch with clear focus and intensity to know what is going on. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” the sheep of God (John 10:10). So leaders are to be vigilant, so that they may identify and oppose false shepherds who are committed to the destruction of God’s vineyard, like a wild boar.

Parents, you are to protect your family. Pastors, you are to protect Christ’s church. That is why Jesus sternly warned the leaders of the church of Ephesus, “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:20). John tells us, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4). In his second epistle he writes, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching [the gospel, the truth], do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work” (2 John 10–11).

Errorists come into a church intending to destroy it by causing divisions and setting traps of temptation for the destruction of God’s people. Of such errorists Paul writes, “Those who oppose [the minister] he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:25–26).

The devil and his agents hate unity in the church of God, so they try to cause quarrels and divisions among God’s people. They oppose the apostolic doctrine. They oppose the Bible—its inspiration and infallibility. They deny the deity of Christ and the miracles. They deny the reality of the fall. They deny the universality of sin and the gospel of the cross of Christ. They deny judgment and hell. They add to and subtract from the Holy Scripture. (PGM) They altogether misinterpret the Scripture by their fallen reason and teach religious pluralism, that is, that all religions lead to the one God—the one God of wild human imaginations!

Jesus warned us about such destroyers: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matt. 7:15–16). Paul also said, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29–30).

Such false teachers oppose the sevenfold unity of the Holy Spirit that Paul describes in Ephesians 4: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (vv. 3–6). The church of God is one.

The devil opposes God’s word. He tells us to do the opposite of what God’s word says. In Genesis 3 God had told the first couple, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die” (Gen. 3:3). But the devil contradicted God’s word: “‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4–5).

The devil always exhorts us to do the exact opposite of the Ten Commandments, and sinful people like it. Sinful teenagers like those who contradict what their parents and other authorities tell them. So Satan says, “Don’t worship the true and living God. Don’t honor and obey your parents. Go ahead: lie and commit any form of immorality. Be independent and autonomous. Enjoy life. Have fun. There is great fun when you disobey God’s law. Don’t worry about God’s judgments.” Likewise, the wicked say in Psalm 2: “Let us break [God’s] chains and throw off [God’s] fetters” (Ps. 2:3).

But the devil and his agents are setting traps to catch and destroy us so that we may be bondslaves of the devil forever. Such agents come with different names: antinomians, libertines, Judaizers, Gnostics, ascetics, Epicureans, ecumenically minded, mystics, and so on. In fact, a great American evangelist said in McCall’smagazine in 1978, “I used to believe that pagans in far countries were lost if they did not have the gospel of Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that.” 1 The same person said in a television interview that the final body of Christ would be made up “from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think that everybody that loves or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the body of Christ. . . . He is calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something they do not have, and they turn to the only light they have, and I think that they are saved and they are going to be with us in heaven.” 2

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “We may be small in numbers, but since when has the doctrine of the remnant become unpopular among evangelicals? It is one of the most glorious doctrines in the whole Bible. We are not interested in numbers. We are interested in truth and in the living God. ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ . . . If we stand for God’s truth, we can be sure that God will honor and bless us.” 3

Beware of false shepherds! They oppose only the true and living God and his truth. They are religious pluralists with the only exception that they hate Jesus Christ and the only way of salvation. Such religious pluralism is popular in this country. But this pluralism means that Jesus Christ is brought down from his utter sovereignty. Religious pluralists tell us, “Your problem is that you take sin too seriously. Take it easy. Sin while you can, for soon you must die, and then you will not be able to enjoy the pleasures of sin. There is no joy in doing righteousness. God hates our happiness, so he gave us all these chains of commandments to keep us in perpetual misery. Besides, don’t you know that truth divides, but love unites? So forget about the Bible and Jesus Christ and salvation and heaven. Sin and be happy now!” That is the bottom line of false ministers. Watch out for them!

II. How to Watch

How can we watch out for these frauds who divide and set traps to destroy us?

 

KNOW THE SCRIPTURES

We cannot detect counterfeit gospels and false shepherds unless we know well the authentic gospel of the Holy Bible. That is why we believe in the truth of sola Scriptura.” Scripture alone is truth. So we study the Scripture. It is the only standard and authority for our doctrine and life. We must study God’s word daily and apply his word daily to our lives. Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness; so also his people love truth and hate falsehood.

Jesus Christ alone is Savior and Lord. Paul says, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19–20). There is no religious pluralism for Christians. In fact, there is no other religion with a doctrine of atonement. Only in Christianity do we find that Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Paul writes, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). Jesus himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). We must ask ourselves this question also: Do we believe this? Jesus also said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Religious pluralism will only destroy people and lead them to hell.

Only God can forgive sins. Jesus Christ is God, and he forgives our sins. When some people brought a paralytic to Jesus, he said to him, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5).

If we know sound doctrine, we can detect false shepherds and their false teaching. Then we can oppose them and protect our families and churches from eternal destruction. As watchmen, we are to protect God’s people by teaching his eternal truth in opposition to the devil’s lies.

OPPOSE FALSE DOCTRINE

If we detect false shepherds through knowledge of truth, what do we do next? Avoid them (ekklinete ap’autôn)! Move away from them! Have nothing to do with them! Shun them! Don’t have any fellowship with them! If people are teaching false doctrine, oppose them and turn away from them.

Paul is warning us to have nothing to do with those who are wicked, those who hate the gospel and holiness. We must refuse to fellowship with them, according the apostolic teaching. Paul says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9). Elsewhere he told the Galatian churches, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:6–9).

To the Corinthians Paul writes, “If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord!” (1 Cor. 16:22). So if anyone does not believe and love Jesus Christ, let him be anathema—a curse be on him. People can say anything they want about Christ, but here is a curse put on them by the apostle himself. Professor J. Gresham Machen, who founded Westminster Seminary, wrote in Christianity and Liberalism, that liberal Christianity, which rejects Christ, miracles, and the atonement, is not Christianity. Christian cults also have nothing to do with Christianity. The ecumenical movement has nothing to do with authentic Christianity. And most modern evangelicals have nothing to do with authentic Christianity.

The apostolic injunction about false teachers is to have nothing to do with them. Move away from them. Don’t fellowship with them because they can only inject poison into you. They are carriers of fatal disease.

So we must know the truth, live the truth, preach the word, and oppose errorists and their heresies. As agents of Satan, errorists come only to destroy. Jesus came to give us abundant, eternal life. He came to give us eternal joy in his presence. So know the truth, as the early disciples did: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Paul writes that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). He also says, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted” (Rom. 6:17). Paul writes to Timothy, “If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). Jesus said, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). And we read, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). If you are ignorant, naïve, and gullible, you will fall. And your fall will prove that your life is not built upon the solid rock of the pure doctrine of Christ. Scripture is the touchstone, the foundation, the blueprint for our lives.

TEST THE SPIRITS

Not only must we know the word so that we can avoid false teachers, but we must also test the spirits. We must test any teaching in light of the word of God. John writes, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” – that is, if they conform to the gospel (1 John 4:1). Paul says, “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through” (1 Thess. 5:21–23). He tells the Corinthians, “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said” (1 Cor. 14:29). The Lord told the church of Ephesus, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false” (Rev. 2:2).

We must seek separation from all errorists and unity with all who love our Lord Christ and his Holy Scripture. For me and for this church, God’s truth is the only basis of Christian unity. So we read, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend [earnestly] for the faith [the objective gospel] that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).

We cannot afford to be naïve, gullible simpletons, immature, ignorant, and believing that “love unites but truth divides.” I want love, but it must be love that is according to truth! Weak, ignorant people who do not test teachings against the word of God will become prey to errorists and be destroyed. They will be trapped and taken for a kill.

We cannot afford to remain infants (see Heb. 5:11–14; 1 Cor. 3:1–4). We must grow up. Yes, it is wonderful to be an infant because someone else will take care of you. And as Rousas Rushdoony said, there is a revolt against maturity in today’s world, and even in today’s churches. We like being taken care of. We like being irresponsible. But Peter exhorted, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen” (2 Pet. 3:18). Paul said, “It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13). God opposes those who refuse to mature.

We must build our lives on the foundation of God’s word. Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock,” and it shall not fall down (see Matt. 7:24–27). Dr. James Boice says that false leaders will come to true churches from other churches to “help.” 4 They don’t tell you that they have already destroyed many other churches. Such people usually have great enthusiasm and leadership abilities. Dr. Boice says that such people like to teach, and will push a particular doctrine at the expense of all others. For example, they will teach justification without sanctification, or salvation without repentance. They will preach the kingdom of self, not the kingdom of God. All their teachings are contrary to the sound, apostolic doctrine. They will come as angels of light, but they are really angels of darkness. They are agents of the devil.

Paul exposes them: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Cor. 11:13–15). They preach a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit. That is why we must test every spirit.

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR TACTICS

Paul describes these people: “By pleasant speech and flattery they thoroughly deceive the naïve” (v. 18, author’s wording). These people want to deceive the spiritually immature Christians and take their money to live self-indulgent lifestyles. They don’t serve Christ; they serve their bellies. Paul was anticipating modern television evangelists and other clever deceivers, as mentioned elsewhere in Dr. Boice’s commentary on this text. 5

The world is full of deceivers; we must watch out for them. So when we encounter teachers in the church, ask these questions: Does their teaching agree with the Holy Bible? Does it glorify Christ? Does it promote godliness? If not, avoid them. Don’t watch their programs. Don’t buy their books. Don’t send them your prayers requests with a check. They will take your money and throw your prayer request in the garbage.

Jesus did not come to unite everyone. He came to separate the sheep from the goats. He came to divide. He said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34).

Jesus himself is described by Paul as a stumbling block for many people to stumble and fall. So he says, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23–24). Jesus himself is a stumbling block and that is why people hate him. They stumbled on him and they fell.

We must fellowship only with those who build us up, not pull us down. We must heed the warnings of Christ himself: “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. . . . But [the sheep] will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice,” the stranger’s teaching (John 10:1, 5).

III. Why Should We Turn Away from Heretics?

Paul warns, “For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites” (v. 18). God’s sheep must turn away from heretics for two reasons. First, these errorists are not serving Christ our Lord. A sinner becomes a Christian by confessing Jesus as Lord, and a true believer will worship and obey our Lord Jesus Christ. Like Paul, all believers are slaves of Christ. They are happy in serving Jesus in obedience to God’s word. They love righteousness and hate sin. But errorists do not submit to Christ. Their master is the devil.

Second, the errorists serve their stomachs (koilia, “belly”). So they habitually serve their bellies, their lusts, their urges, their sinful desires. They live dissolute, dissipated, and dope-filled lives. They hallucinate, and great ideas come to them as they take dope. Their pleasure is in the pleasure of sin. They serve sin and lust all their lives. They live the flesh life Paul describes in Galatians 5: “The acts of the [flesh] are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19–21). Jude says of them, “These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage” (Jude 16).

There are large churches where pastors deceive people from the pulpit. Of such Paul says, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things” (Phil. 3:19–20). Peter also writes of them, “With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! . . . . For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. eyes full of adultery” (2 Pet. 2:14, 18). They are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure (see 2 Timothy 3). Such people do not love God. They are agents of Satan, and they like to entertain us. They speak to their felt needs. The wicked love to go to their churches because they use pleasant speech and flattery. They dress up their destructive heresies in beautiful wrappers. They do not speak of total depravity, the wrath of God, repentance, the cross of Christ, saving faith, obedient life, the power of the Holy Spirit, authority of Scripture, heaven or hell. Rather, they say, “Don’t feel guilty that you are living with a women who is not your wife. God loves us in spite of our sins.” They give people license to do whatever gives them pleasure. They flatter them and say, “Now go and sin more. Jesus loves you.”

The prophets exposed such false ministers. Isaiah says, “These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!’” (Isa. 30:9–11). In Jeremiah’s prophecy, the Lord declares, “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?” (Jer. 23:25–26).

Such false ministers totally deceive the gullible, the mindless, and the emotionally driven. Jesus warned about such people: “Watch out that no one deceives you. . . . For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time” (Matt. 24:4, 24–25). Paul also admonishes, “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” (1 Cor. 14:20). In other words, we must be mature. Be adults. Be highly educated in the word of truth. When someone tells us about some new truth, we must check with parents and pastors, who are delegated to watch out for errorists and their errors. They are most competent to tell us what is truth and what is error based on the Bible. They are not ignorant of the devil’s thoughts and schemes (2 Cor. 2:11b). Any teaching that permits us to sin is of the devil.

I counsel you to join and become a vital member of a Bible-preaching and Bible-practicing church. Then you will not be naïve and gullible. Rather, you can grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ under the care of divinely appointed pastors.

What Then Should We Do?

Paul then writes, “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil” (v. 19). The Roman saints were known for their obedience to the gospel. The apostle Paul therefore rejoices over them. But he counsels them to be wise in regard to truth and innocent in regard to evil. There is good and there is evil in the world. There is good food and there is poison in the world. There is God and there is the devil. “So don’t be so trusting,” Paul is saying. “Be mature. Be discriminating. Know the truth so that you can know and avoid error and errorists.”

We are to feed on the bread of life so that we may be strong in doing good and so that we may hate evil. The Bible tells us that God created the world, including angels. He permitted evil to enter his universe in God’s infinite wisdom for his glory. So there is evil in the world: evil angels and evil humans. As we said before, the devil and his agents only come to steal, kill, and destroy. But God has come in Jesus Christ to give his elect sinners eternal life by his death on the cross. It is true that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19). Yet it is also true that Christ has defeated the devil and all his agents: “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them the cross” (Col. 2:15).

Yet the devil is still active in the world. Do not think that because he is defeated he is no longer active. But the devil and his agents can never harm God’s people. We are in God, God is in us, and he is infinitely greater than the devil, who is in the world.

Therefore, by faith in Christ and in his promises, we can resist the devil, and he will flee from us. The devil may prowl and roar, but he cannot devour us. So we read, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:11). Imagine that in the name of Jesus Christ we resist the super-human devil and he flees! He will do so because Christ has defeated the devil once and for all for us. We have victory in Jesus!

Therefore, the errorists will not triumph. Christ is victor, and his gospel will triumph in every age. Christ has defeated our enemy. In every generation, the people of God can crush the devil under their feet because God in Christ defeated him. He defeats him now under our feet through faith, and he will finally send him into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10).

Our God is the God of peace. But he is also a God of war. Satan is the author of sin, division, and all misery. So God in Christ has declared war against all evil. He did so on the cross, and he won. He is now the Prince of Peace for his people. Friends, surrender to Christ. Confess him as your Lord and Savior, and you will have peace forever. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Christian life calls for grace. So, finally, Paul says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all” (v. 20). Without grace, we can do nothing. We need grace to be saved, and grace to live a victorious life daily. We need grace to be vigilant. We need grace to discern and avoid false and deceiving pastors. We need grace to grow and mature, and grace to die in faith.

Paul makes a promise here: “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Jesus himself promised, “I will be with you always” (Matt. 28:20), that is, in life, in trials, in death, and beyond death, in paradise. So his grace shall never fail us. Elsewhere, the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

By grace we shall live, by grace we shall fight, and by grace we shall win! For in Christ we are all victors already.

Conclusion

Heresies and heretics have been always with the church. Arianism denied the deity of Christ in the fourth century, as did Socianism in the sixteenth century. In New Testament times, there were Judaizers who wanted to add something to the gospel and Gnostics, who wanted salvation without the gospel. There has always been asceticism (salvation through self-effort) and mysticism, that says, “I have a dream.” Additionally, there is Arminianism, a heresy that denies the solas of the Reformation.

The most virulent heresy today is antinomianism, which says one can accept Jesus as Savior but not Lord. Antinomians say, “By grace are you saved; therefore, your sin does not matter. The Bible says, ‘Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.’ So go and sin more, that grace may abound more, resulting in God’s greater glory.” Shame on you, religious frauds! This is sheer heresy! Jesus taught the opposite. In John 8 he told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more” (see John 8:11b; also John 5:14).

May God, therefore, help us to be able to discern by knowing what the true gospel is. May we say goodbye to spiritual infancy, emotionalism, and slavery to urges and appetites, and serve our Lord Jesus Christ with all our might all of our days by his grace.

1 Iain H. Murray, Evangelicalism Divided (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000), 73.

2 Murray, 73–74.

3 Murray, 293.

4 James M. Boice, Romans, vol. 4, The New Humanity: Romans 12–16 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 1929.

5 Boice, 1931–33.