What Does the Bible Say About Spotting a False Teacher? | Bible, Bros & Brew

The Bible teaches that you identify a false teacher by their fruit — their character and conduct — not their charisma or credentials. Scripture in Acts chapter 20, First Timothy chapter 4, Second Timothy chapter 3, and Matthew chapter 7 warns that false teachers exploit people for personal gain, often hiding behind misused verses like "touch not mine anointed" to avoid correction. True shepherds lead with humility, welcome accountability, and point people to Jesus Christ as the one Chief Shepherd — never to themselves.  

Hosts David McIntyre and Phillip Rich, with host/producer Jon Dzyuba, walk through Acts 20:29-30, First Timothy 4:1-5, Second Timothy 3:1-5, First Peter 5:1-4, Second Timothy 4:1-4, and Matthew 7:15-20 to show what Scripture actually says about false teaching in the local church — and how to tell the difference between honoring leadership and giving away discernment you shouldn't.  

FAQ  

Q: What does "touch not mine anointed" actually mean?  

A: It's often twisted to shield leaders from correction. The hosts explain why that's a warning sign, not a mark of anointing.  

Q: What's the difference between honoring a pastor and blind loyalty?  

A: Honoring leadership never means treating a fallible person as beyond question — that loyalty belongs to Christ alone.  

Q: How does Matthew 7 say you can recognize a false teacher?  

A: "You will recognize them by their fruits" — watch the pattern of a person's life over time, not just their words.  

New episodes every Monday. 

Where the Word Meets the Daily Grind.  

gotbrew@biblebros.net

Transcript

Why Gathering Places Matter

David McIntyre 0:00

Now that you better understand who you are as a child of God, a member of God's body, a living stone, now we begin to look at the gathering place and we look at the church, the body of Christ, and we begin to identify some things that we have to begin to evaluate as we're looking at our involvement with gathering together with one another. One of those things has everything to do with something that's going on in the church that we've got to talk about. Up next on Bible Bros and Bruce. And on the ones and twos, as usual, we have John Zuba. We're glad that you guys are here. Everybody doing good tonight.

Jon Dzyuba 1:15

Yes, sir.

David McIntyre 1:17

That's right. And we're excited about what we're going to talk about tonight. As you know, over the last few weeks, we've been talking about the reality that we are the church. Not just people who go to church. That's a building, that's the gathering place. We as individuals are the church. And not only are we the church, but we're interconnected with one another, and we mutually supply what the other parts of the body need. And then we realize that Christ is the head of the church. So Christ is the head, we are the body, and he is leading and guiding us through every day of life. We are both individuals and members of his body. In light of knowing that, we have to consider some things about the gathering places that we go to. We call them churches, but they're really gathering places because we are the church. And when we talk about the church, we're also talking about the building that a lot of people go to, where they gather for worship to hear the word, to connect with other people. But now we got to take a second look at that, and that is knowing what we know. What should we be looking for in those places? And then ultimately the question becomes if I'm part of a gathering place where I see some of these issues, what do I do? And tonight we're gonna touch on a subject that I know Philip is going to and John are going to love talking about, and it's the issue of false teaching and false teachers. And I'm gonna get into that a little bit and we'll talk it through in just

What’s In The Cup

David McIntyre 3:08

a moment. But before we do that, let's find out what's in the cup. John, why don't we start with you? What are you drinking?

Jon Dzyuba 3:15

Man, I don't know if you noticed, it's hot outside, so I had to do something. Oh my god! That's right. Um I found uh it was it Green Mountain, the Green Mountain brand. I found like a little A cup, it was iced pumpkin spice. That's right. I got I almost tripped up just by saying it. Iced pumpkin spice. Iced spice is it early for pumpkin spice? Yes, yes, but you know what? Do I care? No, because it's good. That's part of the problem, and it's also part of the solution because it is a good cup of coffee. Um, I had to pull out the the good old tumbler uh tumbler for the Mandalorian. Dude, I didn't know I had this, I forgot I had this.

Phillip Rich 4:05

See, yeah, that's how much how much uh Disney merch John has. He just forgets all the different things he's bought.

David McIntyre 4:12

Yeah, the truly stated Philip Rich. All right, John's drinking that iced pumpkin spice out of season, I will say, but we forgive him as we often do with John's coffee choices.

Phillip Rich 4:28

Yeah, see you in a trick. Well, I want to highlight a new peregrine that has hit the shelves or the virtual shelves. Um, it is the Burundi Kampazi. Uh I found out by the way that the Burundi, the people that they get the Burundi coffee from, it's their oldest partnership that they have, and they've been working with these uh families for for many, many, many years. But this coffee is awesome, it is unbelievable. The notes are cherry cola, blood orange, and red wine.

David McIntyre 5:07

Oh, that's interesting.

Phillip Rich 5:09

Yeah, it's it's as with all peregrine coffees, man. There's a depth of flavor, there is a complexity of notes, there is a sense of sophistication. There is an elaboration of great mysteries.

David McIntyre 5:25

Come on, man.

Phillip Rich 5:27

Uh, when you drink peregrine. So hopefully, we'll get some revelation tonight that we weren't expecting from.

David McIntyre 5:33

Ooh, look the way you just preached it. I feel like I already got a revelation.

Jon Dzyuba 5:40

Yes, thank you, Peregrine, for sponsoring our revelations tonight.

David McIntyre 5:45

I'm just that's a good one.

Phillip Rich 5:48

So, shout out to Peregrine, man. But what about you, David?

David McIntyre 5:51

Shout out to Peregrine tonight. I'm bringing back an oldie but a goodie. I lost the bag and couldn't find out where it was. It was just hiding. Um, but this is a beautiful coffee company. Um, a young um, a young um, a young um, well, I'm trying to say it in a way because I don't even want to sound this way, but I I'm just gonna say it, and I'm not trying to be any kind of way, so please don't read into it. A young black female um created this coffee line called Kahawa, which is Swahili for coffee. And um, I bought this last year and really, really enjoyed it. And I re got re-found another bag, so this is the Kahala 1893. Uh oh, come back.

Phillip Rich 6:44

There we go.

David McIntyre 6:46

There we go. Kahala 1893, African spice. This is a great bag of coffee. Um what it is though, this is this has got hints of cinnamon and cardamom. Cardamom, and um I described it as like this this African spice tastes a little bit like pumpkin spice without the pumpkin. All right, so it's got great flavor to it, it's a medium roast, so it's nice and easy on the palate. Put a little cream in it, and you've got yourself a bit of coffee perfection in the cup. And try cautious. You can find them on Amazon. Uh, it's a great coffee company. All right, that's what's in the cup. And before we go on, please make sure if you're watching on YouTube or Rumble that you like and subscribe uh to the channel, let us know how much you're engaged and what we're talking about, and that you love us like we love you. However, the kids do that. Um, it's such a weird thing to do, though. So anyway, uh now let's jump into the word.

The Real Danger Of False Teaching

David McIntyre 8:01

You know, tonight, um, as I said at the beginning, when you are when you realize that you are the church and you are the body of Christ, it should change a lot of things, it should begin to change things about you, how you perceive certain things, uh, how you govern and carry yourself, and it should it should change the way that you interact with the word, your local church, and the people and things connected with that. And one of the things that I kind of want to come to you and tell you, and I I know that you may have heard it already, but to some degree, you know, I feel like for some of you, it's gonna be a first time that you're hearing it, but within the local church, there's some problems that have to do with doctrine. There are problems that are connected with what is being taught from far too many pulpits. Let me start by saying there are a number of really good churches out there that care about the word, they care about what God says, and they realize that it's most important to teach this word as accurately as possible and to share it with you so that you can live the kind of life that Christ ordained for you to live and walk out. But I also will tell you, as the Bible says it, there are wolves and sheep's clothing out there as well, and there are people who have ill intent around what they're doing, or they're seeking to exploit people because of for their own gain and benefit. Yeah, and you might, you know, the first thing for some of you that might come to mind is oh, he's gonna talk about the prosperity gospel. Well, you know, I could, um, and it might get mentioned to some degree, but the prosperity gospel is not the only way that people are exploiting and taking advantage of you.

Phillip Rich 10:18

True.

David McIntyre 10:18

In fact, through your very salvation is probably the most likely way that people are trying to infiltrate your life and get you to give them what they want by questioning your salvation. Is it sure or not? Do you need to take certain actions and move you into a realm of works that Christ never called you to?

Jon Dzyuba 10:45

Yeah.

David McIntyre 10:46

Using um using certain teachings in order to manipulate certain behavior, and that can be all kinds of teaching. So, you know, one of them that comes to mind is touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.

Phillip Rich 11:07

Oh boy.

David McIntyre 11:09

I don't know how many times I've heard that, and I do know now that for a lot of these folks that are quoting it, it has nothing to do with the truth of the word, but more so what I want to manipulate you to believe and think and feel and do for me. Goodness regarding me. I've been in churches where people say, Don't touch me. The anointing will reveal your whole life story to me. I mean, and that's that's that's so performative, so many times it's performative, yeah. So many times it's designed to misuse and use the giftings of God and try to make them something that God never intended them to be. We'll probably hit it, but remember, Ephesians tells us that the gifts of God are for the equipping of the saints, not for people to act spooky.

Phillip Rich 12:13

Right.

David McIntyre 12:14

Come on, and so we've got to pull the veil off of some of this false teaching and these false prophets that are out there in order to have healthy lives and healthy church environments where we can put our focus on Christ Jesus. Philip, where do you want to start tonight?

Phillip Rich 12:33

You know, um, man, there's so many good places we could start. Um, I I think like you well, go ahead, David. I think you're about to say something.

David McIntyre 12:41

No, I was gonna I was about to say, feel free to add on to where we just started, too.

Phillip Rich 12:45

Yeah, I I will say this, and this is just a little side note here, but uh the the abuse of that scripture touched not my anointed. One of the things that comes to my mind is a lot of times people who claim to be anointed use that scripture so that they can remain above criticism. Right, they use it as a way to shield themselves from any type of rebuke or criticism. And it's like, that's not good, that's not healthy. If you're in any kind of a place where you're not allowed to bring any type of correction or criticism to whoever the head person is, the the head preacher, the whatever the pastor, if they're above being able to be called out on something or criticized about something, you've got a serious problem because that place more than likely has turned into a cult of personality instead of uh anywhere that's actually abiding by what the scripture says, what a shepherd should be and what a pastor should be. Uh, and we there's so much we could get

Wolves Among The Flock

Phillip Rich 13:48

into with that, man. But I, you know, one of the things I will say um in Acts, and I wasn't planning to go here, but it just kind of popped in my mind in Acts chapter 26, I think it is. Hopefully I'm right. Um, when Paul was with the Ephesians uh in at the Ephesian church and he was saying his last goodbye because he knew that basically that he was gonna leave and probably never be seen by them physically ever again. And so he gives them kind of like this parting, you know, these parting words. And uh one of the things he said was um it may not be in Acts 26. Let me look it up real quick, but he said that one of the things to watch out for, yeah, Acts 20. I'm sorry, it was Acts 20. Paul said in verse 29, I don't know if you uh let's see, John. Oh, John's already there. I was looking at my my e-saw and I didn't see what was on screen. Okay, Acts 20, verse 29. Um, Paul said, I know that after my departure, so Paul's like gonna get ready to leave, but I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. He's like, they don't care how many people they destroy. And then in verse 30 it says, And from among your own selves, he's like, right here in the midst of these people, right from yourselves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, he said, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. And look what he tells them to do. And this is kind of like the safeguard that he's trying to give them. He said, I now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. And I think Paul was basically saying, Stay with the word and you'll be good. You start following people here and there, it's easy to go and drift off and go astray. I commend you to God into the word, commend you to God into the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Um right there, he's telling them, Look, as soon as I'm out of here, be aware, be alert, because there's gonna be opportunists that try to come in and they're gonna seek, like David talked about earlier, seek ways that they can exploit people, seek ways that they can gain advantage. And if there's one thing I could say, David, I know you uh you're you you've hit it on it already, but it's like it seems to be the common thread among all the false teachers, false prophets, whoever's getting out there doing stuff they shouldn't be doing. The common thread is always their desire to benefit themselves and to use other people to do it. And it could be benefit themselves financially. We've also seen benefit themselves sexually, you know, like there's there's all kinds of foolishness going on out there. And a lot of times these people abuse that position of authority because a lot of times the people that are listening to these guys, the people that are, you know, quote unquote submitting to these prophets and pastors, they're unaware or they're not that they're maybe a little bit naive about it, and they're thinking that if I go against this person, I might be going against God, you know, because that's the way that it's being presented to them. That you can't deny or defy or ever disagree even with what this person's saying. Because if you do, you might as well be fighting against God, right? And man, I'm telling you right now that woe to these people. I I'm about to get old testament on them. Woe to these people to out here doing this stuff. Uh, it's a dangerous place when you're abusing and manipulating and uh you know engineering things to benefit you and you only, and you don't care what collateral damage happens as a result of it.

David McIntyre 18:06

Yeah, it's a it's a sad thing, it's a sad day. Um go ahead and take us to that next verse you want to take us to in Timothy,

When Rules Become “Revelation”

David McIntyre 18:15

Philip.

Phillip Rich 18:15

Sure, absolutely. Uh 1 Timothy chapter 4. John is on the spot. Hey, Johnny on the spot. How about that? Okay, sorry. Uh in verse one, Paul is Paul talking. He says, Now the spirit expressly says that in the later times, in later times, some will depart from the faith. Now, listen to this. Some will depart from the faith. So that means that they were at one time in the faith. You can't depart from it unless you were in it, right? So some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. Oh boy, that can open up a can of worms, David. And it says verse 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. And look at some of the teachings of demons that he mentions here who forbid marriage. Forbidding people to marry is a teaching of demons. I know there's a whole huge sect of the church that uh has that as a practice that you forbid and take a vow of celibacy or or or a vow of whatever else it might be. I forgot what it's called, but in other words, you say, I'm not gonna get married, I'm not gonna, and then you wonder why there's so much sexual abuse in that same church. Um, anyway, I digress. Uh, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving. You know, there's a whole holiday where people are abstaining from certain foods, uh, but that's not found in the scripture anywhere. It's it's plainly put right here that you know God has He said everything is good if it's received with Thanksgiving, everything's acceptable if it's received with Thanksgiving to those by those who believe and know the truth. So uh actually it's right there, verse four. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. So I just wanted to put that out there, David, just to say, you know, this is talking about people within the church. This is not, you know, anything having to do with folks who aren't saved. This is talking about inside the church. There's people that are going to be teaching things that mislead others, that put others on a path to destruction sometimes. And it's just it's it's damage uh all over the place, you know, inflicted by our own, which should not be.

David McIntyre 21:03

You know, that that's good. I he pushed me ahead to look at something else. Um, but you know, yeah, I got nothing to add. Philip. I got I got nothing other than

The Mask Of Godliness

David McIntyre 21:17

that. I want to actually jump over though in in connection with that to Second Timothy one and three. I'm sorry, Second Timothy three and one.

Phillip Rich 21:31

Because um, I suppose you had over here too.

David McIntyre 21:40

You know, some of some of the behind the scenes of the causation is here. That will create some of the stuff that we're seeing out there right now. You know, it says, but understand this in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Um the King James says peril. Times.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Yeah.

David McIntyre 22:02

Which I think is the more appropriate term. You know, just times of difficulty makes it sound like things might get a little hard. Perilous times mean it's gonna get rough up in here.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

That's right, yeah. That's right.

David McIntyre 22:16

And verse two says, For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money. They'll be proud, they'll be arrogant, they'll be abusive, they'll be disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable. And let me tell you, part of exploitation is this sense of unappeasability. This sense that you know of never being satisfied.

Phillip Rich 22:46

Right. That's so good, dude.

David McIntyre 22:48

And then they're slanderous, they have no self-control. The King James calls that lasciviousness. And we may hit that word here again in just a little bit. Um, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, uh, but denying its power. And that's inevitably where it starts. There's a pastor here in Atlanta, and he looks the part, he's got his pastoral glasses, um, you know, he has the suit, and he has the dynamic that when he preaches, uh he knows how to uh how how shall I say? Tell your neighbor, say, give it to you, give it to you. See, he knows how to uh work up that emotion in the room, all of that stuff, and it's just and people say, Oh my god, I can feel the spirit of God moving in this room right now. That's not the spirit of God, baby. That's your emotions, yeah. That's your emotions and feelings, yeah. But they appear like godliness, but while he looks the part, he has been denying the complete power of God. And why and how has he been denying the power of God? Because he's a lover of self, a lover of money, he's proud, he's arrogant, he's abusive, he's disobedient, he's ungrateful, he's unholy, he's heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, and not loving, he's treacherous, he's reckless, he's swollen with conceit. He's a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God. And the Bible tells us that avoid such people. In other words, if this person is leading your church that you're a participant in, you need to find another church to call your gathering place. Wow, because I'm I I can't say it any uh, you know, when we look here in just a moment, you know, when you talk about these false prophets and false teachers, and let me just explain, you're gonna hear us use both terms, false prophets and false teachers. They're technically interchangeable. And there's a few places in the word where the Bible specifically talks about false teaching and what happens when it happens, but so many times when you're seeing that there are false prophets, there is a connection that there's also false teaching.

Phillip Rich 25:43

Right, right.

David McIntyre 25:44

So when we're you hear me talking about or you hear Philip talking about a false prophet, no, we're talking about false teaching as well. The two are connected, but um it tells us to avoid these people, and when we find false teachers, false prophets in the church, we have a responsibility to avoid such people.

Exploitation Disguised As Spiritual Authority

David McIntyre 26:09

Yeah, yeah, because look, it takes it even further in verse six, and it says, For among them are those who creep into households, and look what they do, they capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions. They're always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. You know what that says to me, especially when it comes up to false teachers. And Philip, you you feel free to give a different thought because I'm okay with being wrong, I'll just correct. Um, first of all, the reason why they go to the weak is because they're easy prey. And God would never do that, and he wouldn't have his real shepherds do that. If a sheep on in a sheepyard is easy prey, God calls his shepherds to protect that sheep and to help strengthen them, not to take advantage of them for his own benefit. But they're looking for those who are burdened with sins and led astray by various passions. Why? Because again, it's about exploitation. They want what they want from that person, and they have no thought in their mind whatsoever about healing, about making whole, about strengthening and doing better. They're going to take that for all it's worth. Let me tell you how you can know that that's true. Look at the state of so many churches around you right now where sexual sin is at the forefront. Look at where pastors have had to step down. Why? Because they've taken advantage of a weak 12, 13, 16-year-old girl. They've manipulated her with their words and spiritual things, they've groomed these girls, and then they've taken advantage of them sexually. They're having affairs in their offices with these secretaries and other women in the church because they've used their position as a tool to manipulate people.

Jon Dzyuba 28:18

Come on, come on.

David McIntyre 28:20

And so you're literally practically seeing this. Uh, they're always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. And what that simply means is they can read and look at the Bible all day long, but they never put the pieces together and understand that what God wants is a change in them, not necessarily some other thing that they come to grips with. I tend to believe, Philip, that a lot of these people are scanning the word because they're looking for ways to manipulate the word rather than because they want to use it to the benefit of the sheepfold.

Phillip Rich 28:59

Wow. Yeah. Definitely. I think that's um uh sadly, that's one of the things that, you know, even Peter talked about it uh when he was talking about, I think it's the end of 2 Peter, he was saying, hey, you know, check out Paul's letters. Some of it's kind of difficult to understand. He said, and and people who are unstable will use some of the stuff in Paul's letters and twist it to their own destruction. You know, um, I in other words, there's there's always been, it's always been a thing of folks who gravitate towards positions of power. Um, and when they do, they don't have the intent to benefit other people. They only have the intent to benefit themselves. And they'll they'll use the Bible to do it, they'll use any other thing they can think of to do it as well. And sadly, sadly, you have people who are emotionally vulnerable, uh, and sometimes just lack discernment, uh, lack of critical thinking. You know, they they're they're too easily manipulated and swayed. And I'm not trying to blame those people because sometimes it can be so thick, the manipulation could be so thick that it's just difficult for folks to discern what's actually from God and what's just coming from that man uh or woman, you know, whatever the case is. And especially when they're these people in in positions of power in the pulpits and so forth, when they're throwing about these things where God told me this and God ordained me to do this, and God called me to do that, and they're constantly reminding the congregation that they're the person that God has ordained and God has assigned and God has called to be standing in front of everybody. And if you go against me, it's the same thing as going against God. And you say that enough time towards you know, towards people, and and they're already folks who want to fear God and do right. It's gonna be difficult for them to separate between, okay, that's the man, that's the person who's human and who's fallible, and over here is God who I'm actually supposed to be loyal to, but many times people confuse their loyalty to God with their loyalty to that preacher or that pastor or that prophet.

Loyalty To God Over Leaders

David McIntyre 31:17

I need you to just stop for a minute, Philip. Um, I need you to say, I I really need you to say that again, because that is a mission critical item for the body of Christ. For those who are the church who belong to God and are the church, that means all of you who are born again and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you're the church of God and you are his temple. Yeah, say what you just said again about loyalty to the man versus loyalty to God.

Phillip Rich 31:49

Yeah, and and again, there if there's a danger in being loyal to the man, who is fallible, who can miss it, who can be completely wrong versus being loyal to God. Now, the man a lot of times will speak and and supposedly on behalf of God, and that's where people get confused or they they feel uh some level of guilt sometimes. You know, they're like, oh gosh, I can't I can't deny or even maybe criticize what this guy's saying, or you know, it may not sound even fully right, but hey, he he told me he's anointed, he told me he's called, and I have to, you know, I mean maybe he is, and so all of a sudden you're you're starting to confuse that loyalty towards that towards that person with loyalty to God. And I I want something just popped in my head earlier. Um, in First Peter, he said, When the chief shepherd shall appear, you know, you'll receive a crown of glory. Uh, Jesus is the chief shepherd, there is no other shepherd. There's a there's only under shepherds, but there's a chief shepherd. But what we have sometimes is people who treat that man as the chief, as the top. And if I go against him, I'm going against God. It was never meant to be that way. Um, as a matter of fact, you know, Peter in 1 Peter 5, he yeah, he tells us, he said, Look, you know, everybody should be subject one to another. We should be clothed with humility, right? Even if especially those who are in the pulpit preaching, you should be clothed with humility, you should be willing to take correction from the least person who's in your church. I mean, if if we're going to keep things honest. But I remember, David, I know you remember this too. The church we were in, uh, there was this air about the place. There was a culture and an atmosphere of, you know, don't ever question what this dude says. Don't ever criticize what this guy preaches or question what he preaches and say it's not biblical, even though it may blatantly be unbiblical in some places. Right. Otherwise, you're going against the anointing, you're you're touching the anointing. And we all see what happened when the kids made fun of the bald-headed prophet in the old testament and bears came out and ate them up. And we heard all kinds of things that quite honestly seem like veiled threats, you know. Like, like if you if you step out of line, brother, watch out. A lightning bolt's coming for you, or something like that.

David McIntyre 34:26

Look, so and so and so died the other day, yeah. And that happened seven weeks after he came to my office and told me I was so-and-so, but I just said, let the Lord judge, and now he's not here anymore.

Phillip Rich 34:41

Now he's dead. We heard stuff like that.

David McIntyre 34:44

How do you know? How do you know? Tell me, David. I'm telling you, and you mean you're telling me God's walking around taking people out now because they may have tried to bring a little correction to you, right? And look, we do we do honor the office. Don't please don't misinterpret. We're we honor the office, we honor the people who walk in those offices because they don't do so lightly. Again, just like the teachers, there's an added judgment, there's an added responsibility for the person who takes on some of these biblical roles. There, all you have to do is look in First Timothy. Um, the first Timothy, the book of First Timothy. It's a laundry list of roles in the church, and what's required to even qualify for them. And it can be a lot, yeah. And you have to maintain that. So, you know, it's not an easy thing. I want to read what you were just talking about because what first uh um first, I don't know why my camera, there we go, do this. There we go. What first Peter 5 says, it says, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. Wow. That part right there will set some of you free. Yep, it says, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in charge, but being examples to the flock. Wow. Now check out four. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. That tells you right there, there's so many, well, not so many, but there are a lot of leaders out there who want to act like they are the head of the church, right? That they are the chief shepherds, like Philip was talking about earlier. But the chief shepherd is Christ.

Phillip Rich 37:16

There you go.

David McIntyre 37:17

And all they're doing, they are members of the same body as we are. They have an elevated role to take a group of us and make sure that we're safe, that we're nourished, to make sure that we're learning and growing in the word, that they sometimes bring in teachers to help us to understand our knowledge of the word, to create fellowship, to pray uh for one another, to engage with one another. And they're doing all of that not because they're taking Christ's place, but as a representative Christ over a portion or dealing with as it pertains to a portion of his body. But all of that is until the Christ, the head, returns, and at that point it's like, oh guys, okay, guys, he's here, the boss is here.

Phillip Rich 38:13

Right.

David McIntyre 38:13

And you step out of the way and into your place because you recognize that you're not the guy, he is.

Know Scripture So You Can Test Claims

David McIntyre 38:24

And when you recognize that, then you begin to see that any doctrine that leads people any other way than the gospel and the way of Christ will be considered false doctrine. That's right, that's right, and that is just the simplest way that we can define what false doctrine is. Any doctrine that teaches you to go any other way than the way of Christ is false doctrine. Even if somebody calls it Christ's doctrine, if that doctrine doesn't line up with what we see and understand and know of the word, then it's a false doctrine. Now, here's why we get in trouble, Philip. I think it's because too few of us know enough of the word to be able to rightly judge whether the doctrine being fed to us is accurate or not.

Phillip Rich 39:27

Come on, that's good, David. And you know, something, uh and up and to to the credit of our former pastor, he would always say, Hey, look, don't take my word for it. You know, whatever I'm preaching from the pulpit, you look it up in the Bible, don't believe it just because I said it. Make sure you you verify it with scripture, you know. And we we think about the book of Acts when it talked about the Bereans and how it said that they were more noble than the the believers at Thessalonica because the Bereans would search the scriptures to see if those things were so. Um, they didn't just take things at face value, they were like, let me check this on, you know, check this against the word, you know, that it's legit. And um, I you know, that's a and I hate to say it, it's kind of a lost art. You know, we we have honestly, and don't get me wrong, man. I'm not saying it's always easy to get into the word every day or whatever the case is, but you can't be lazy either about your your your study of and your attaining knowledge of the word of God. As a believer, I honestly think that that should be like assignment number one, uh, beyond even trying to go out and get people saved. And I know that may sound a little iffy to some people, but to me, assignment one is make sure you are grounded in the knowledge of the truth from God's word. Because there's been a whole lot of people who went out and did evangelistic work, and then you find out their life is a complete disaster uh personally because they they they haven't found out what God's word said about this, that, or the other. And anyway, uh I don't want to go too far on that side, but um, but point being that you, I think one of the biggest responsibilities we have as believers in Christ is to make sure we are solid in our understanding of and knowledge of God's word, because then we'll be able to check it up against what people are saying or preaching or teaching uh from the pulpit or whatever the case is. And we will know whether or not those things are so, according to the scripture. To me, that's that's a that is a requirement because it's too easy. And Jesus warned us about it, Paul warned us about it, Peter warned us about it, Jude warned about it. Don't let false teachers get a grip on you. They told us over and over again that that would be part of the problem. And dude, false doctrines and false teachings have been around as long as the church has been around. There, there's a um uh I I've got I've downloaded some stuff from eesord. Uh, one of the big volume sets that I downloaded is called the Anti-Nicene Fathers, and it's some fascinating letters from the early, early church fathers like uh Polycarp and Iranius, and um Iranius in particular, he has a whole letter called Against Heresies. Now, this has probably not even been 50 years since John passed away, like the apostle John, and already they were dealing with heresies. Yeah, already they were dealing with false doctrine. It's never been, there's never been a time in church history when we didn't have to deal with this, y'all. You know, so um let's let's be let's make sure we stay on our scriptures. And and Jesus told the Pharisees, and I'll say this and be done. Jesus told the Pharisees whenever they would ask him all these questions to try to trip him up, or the things he would always go back to was, Hey, didn't you read in the scriptures what it said? Right, he's like, Don't he say you you err because you don't know the scriptures nor the power of God.

David McIntyre 43:12

Yep. So well, even look, even look at how Jesus responded to Satan in the wilderness, right? Every response was the word says, the word says that's right, giving us an example how we ought to confront when the enemy is coming against us. We should be also saying the word says, but I want to take you back to 1 Peter 2 that we talked about over the last couple of weeks when we were talking about us being the church. Remember in 1 Peter 2 1, it says, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, put all that junk away, and like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into. To salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, that pure spiritual milk is the word of God. Yes. You're supposed to take uh, I mean, he we constantly see the word referred to as milk because the concept he's trying to give you, just like you would do an infant, and you give them milk to start with, and then over time you introduce new things into their diet, and they go from milk to stronger meat, then to some more meat, and then to some more meat, and then they got teeth growing in, and they can chew stuff, and then they get a little bit more of something, and then a little bit more of something, and before you know it, they're eating full-grown meals, they're mature, they're maturing and growing with full-grown meals that not only fill them but give them the nutrients and the nourishing they need to be able to go out and do. And it's the same pathway with the word. So we've got to, if you haven't already, you got to get started on this milk and get going so that you can become what God has called you to. Um, in these last couple of minutes here, Philip, could we uh um I want to give you, I think maybe maybe let's look at Matthew chapter seven. Cool. Because what I want to make sure that you walk away with, and we'll come back and revisit it next week because we're gonna carry this conversation over. But I want to give you something that I hope will not only motivate you to partake in the word, but it's going to give you an answer to help you with this false doctrine. And I'll and I'll talk about this also next week, too, Philip.

Itching Ears And Handpicked Teachers

David McIntyre 45:54

But you know, 2 Timothy 4 talks about how there's there's another there's another side to this false doctrine equation. You know, on one side of it, you have people who will take advantage, but 2 Timothy 4 um encourages us, and maybe we'll look at that real quick. Let's look at 2 Timothy 4. It says, I charge you in the presence of God, verse 1, and of Christ, who is to judge living and dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with come with complete patience and teaching. Listen up to verse 3. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Oh boy, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. That was Paul talking to Timothy. But you have to realize that he's warning Timothy that there's a time coming that the other side of this coin is going to play a part in it too. And that is, it's not just that they're out here teaching false doctrine, you're out here looking, you, the individual, the member of the body of Christ, the church of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are out intentionally looking for something to scratch those itching ears of yours rather than the truth.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Oh boy.

David McIntyre 47:45

Yeah, you're doing it. It says that they will heap together. Imagine that. It's not not just find one or two, but you're heap together. That does that doesn't sound like just a few, does it?

Phillip Rich 48:00

And and isn't it what you see nowadays? It's like people have, okay, well, I'm gonna go to this conference and hear this speaker, and I've got uh these you know audio sets from this speaker, and I always get these books from this um this person who writes books or whatever, you know, and it's like they're heaping to themselves things, and nine times out of ten, just like the scripture says, it's things that basically already agree with what they think it is right, even if it's not been checked up against what God's Word says. It's just kind of I think this is right, so let me find a teacher who tells me that it's right.

David McIntyre 48:35

And it and it feels good, and it and and you know, it's like I watched a video the other day, and this guy asked, you know, they were doing a Bible study, they had an open Bible study, and they asked the men as they came in what church they went to, and as they came in, too, it's like almost nobody in the group seemed to go to just one church. Wow, guy was like, Well, on you know, two times a month I go to this church, and two times a month I go to that church, and then when he named the two churches, I was aware of both of them, and I'm like, that is a dichotomy. That's two vastly different churches, but they weren't going, they were going to different gathering places, and I'm not I'm not saying that that's wrong, but when you when you're locking yourself, I don't want to use the word locking, Phillips right. That's what I'm saying. You're all over the place, you're in every convention, every conference, the Christian pop-ups. Um you're at your church, you're at this thing and that thing, you're at all over the place. And where you don't go is the places they convict you.

Phillip Rich 49:51

Oh boy.

David McIntyre 49:52

Those are not the popular churches per se, where they tell you that, you know, there is um, I have in one of my commentaries, it talks about that, you know, the places that the the doctrine that people run from is the doctrine that says that there's judgment and there's consequence that's connected with actions and behavior.

Phillip Rich 50:15

Yep.

David McIntyre 50:16

And that's just a that's a vibe for the whole planet right now where nobody wants to take personal responsibility for their choices and decisions, where you can murder somebody and then think you also ought to walk free. Those those are two dynamics that shouldn't exist together. But the people have just as much of a guilt in this as those who are taking advantage. You know, in the one church that I told you about here in Atlanta, where the pastor preaches the right way and has the glasses and the suit and all that. What is also true is that his congregation is filled with a bunch of people. The moment he begins to hoop, they are on their feet. All of a sudden, they're they're passing out not from the heat, but because they say the spirit hit them. And you heard what he just preached. He preaches a gospel of inclusion of sin that God never included. In fact, we see it biblically that when that type of sin existed, God destroyed the places where it existed.

Phillip Rich 51:27

Right.

David McIntyre 51:28

But you're preaching another doctrine, you're preaching another way, and what people do is they gravitate to it, they want to hear it, they want to feel good, they want to hear that prosperity gospel because they're tired of being broke and they want to believe that something is going to uh magically take them out of where they are, other than hard work, wisdom, and God's guidance.

Phillip Rich 51:53

Watch out, bro. Yes, sir.

David McIntyre 51:56

And you have people on the other side who are ready to teach you whatever you're willing to hear as long as they can benefit themselves with it. So everybody has a responsibility here not to go the wrong way. Just one final thought as you look at Matthew 7.

Recognizing People By Their Fruit

David McIntyre 52:17

And Matthew 7, there are this is a gold mine chapter in the Bible. There are there is nugget after nugget from Jesus directly here. But if you look at verse 15, it says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, inwardly are ravenous wolves. And we'll talk about that word ravenous next week because that's a that's a serious word. You will recognize them by their fruits, right? I'm gonna jump down to the bottom of this, the bottom segment here. We'll talk about it in a little more detail, but just realize that every false prophet, these false teachers who come to you in sheep's clothing, in other words, they look the part, but behind all that looking the part, they're really ravenous wolves. The Bible tells you you'll be able to determine who they are by their fruit. So, in other words, you should be watching what's produced from the people's lives around you. You know, we the Bible tells us we talk, we hear a lot about judging, and the world likes to tell us Christians a lot don't judge me, don't judge me. Usually people say that because they're in some sin that probably the Lord judged them about, and they just don't want to feel guilty about what they're doing. We don't have to judge because the Lord is already condemned. But what we can do is evaluate the fruit that's connected to that tree and determine how we govern ourselves once we see the fruit. And this one says, Grapes don't come from thorn bushes and figs from thistles. So every healthy tree, verse 17, bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Now we'll go on next week and dig a little further because it's not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven is still talking about those same false prophets.

Phillip Rich 54:47

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

David McIntyre 54:49

Jesus doesn't stop talking about what he's talking about, but we'll dig into that next week. But if you don't take anything away um from this, is that just know start being a fruit inspector? Yep, start looking at and and this is not just when it comes to false prophets, but this comes to the people in your lives. What kind of fruit are they bearing? Because if even though they look good and everything is great, but you still keep smelling rotten fruit, something's wrong.

Phillip Rich 55:26

There we go.

David McIntyre 55:27

Something is wrong. Do you know that it can also that person can physically or visibly not look right to you, but there's always a sweet smell of fruit around.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Right.

David McIntyre 55:42

So we can't we can't physically necessarily go by just our physical eyes. We need to pray that God will open the eyes of our understanding, our spiritual eyes to help us to see what our physical eyes don't see, so we can evaluate the people around us and learn how to govern ourselves accordingly.

Practical Next Steps And Closing

David McIntyre 56:06

We're gonna stop right there.

Phillip Rich 56:09

That's good stuff.

David McIntyre 56:11

You want to add a final thought, Philip?

Phillip Rich 56:13

Man, I'm just gonna say I can't wait to do this next week because I um that Matthew 7 passage, and it's yeah, there's a lot to still talk about. We haven't even scratched the surface, guys. So make sure you guys next week.

David McIntyre 56:26

We hadn't even got started good. We had we as a matter of fact, we hit one thing we talked about starting with, and we have varied off the script since then. Which is our normal, which is our normal, as is our custom. Correct. So um we're glad. Sorry, I'm about to drink coffee and act like we're just all here chilling. Um we're glad that you joined us. Don't miss next week. We gotta finish talking about this false teaching thing because it's an important piece of who you are as the church, as the temple of God, as his living stones. And we've got to right size us so that we can be a part of helping the right size the rest, and then we can all go on to glory. Remember, Jesus is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle, and we've got to allow him to do his work in us, but we have to be open. The other thing I want to encourage you to do is if you haven't already, start with the spiritual milk, start with Genesis if you want to. Start from the very beginning, pick up Proverbs, that's Philip's favorite book. Pick up with Matthew chapter one and read on. Pick up with the book of Acts or pick up with John. John's a great book to start with. You know, start with the letters, pick a place and just start reading and taking it in. And the goal is I'm doing this not once, not just twice, but this is a part of what I do because I'm maturing in Christ through his word. All right, don't forget to like and subscribe. Uh, we are glad you've joined us. You can also join us and connect with us on social media. Uh, we're out there on TikTok, also known as Top Kick, and uh Instagram. Uh, you can find us on Rumble, uh, which we are also on, and then on your favorite podcast platform. Just look up Bible Bros and Brew and you should find us there. Um, find us there, sorry. Uh I'm David until next time. He's Philip until next time. And he's Juan Hablo. Uh also known as John. Uh, not Juan Pablo, but Juan Hablo.

Phillip Rich 58:50

Hablo.

David McIntyre 58:51

So uh he's a hot American sandwich. Oh till next time. We're out of here. I'll gotta get it.