Category: False Teaching

John 13: 6-11. ESV.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, …“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is COMPLETELY clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

One of the most dangerous false teaching of the hyper grace doctrine is teaching believers never to confess their sins whenever they do sin. The warped argument is that if one confess his or her sins and seek forgiveness daily is to render the death of Christ on the cross an imperfect atonement for our sin.

In the above passage, the cleansing mentioned clearly refers to spiritual cleansing. Though Peter was clean, not every one of the disciples was clean and Jesus knew who would betray Him.

So when we have taken a spiritual bath in Christ, we are COMPLETELY clean. But we will still get our feet dirty as we walk through life and we have to allow Jesus to wash our feet. That is, if we do not confess our sins and obtain His forgiveness and cleansing of all our unrighteousness in our daily walk (1 John 1:9), we will have no part with Jesus.

John MacArthur elaborated this in his book “Twelve Ordinary Men” :
…Peter, as a believer, was already fully justified. The forgiveness and cleansing he needed was not the kind of summary pardon one would seek from the Judge of the Universe – as if Peter were seeking to have his eternal destiny settled. He had already received that kind of cleansing and forgiveness. But now Peter was coming to God as any child would approach a parent, seeking fatherly grace and forgiveness for his wrongdoings. That was the kind of cleansing Peter needed. It is the same kind of forgiveness Jesus taught all believers to pray for daily (Luke 11:4). Here, Jesus likens such daily forgiveness to a foot-washing…

Mark 8: 34-38

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

On the night before Jesus was betrayed, Peter told Jesus so confidently that he would lay down his life for Jesus. But right after the arrest of Jesus, Peter denied Jesus 3 times. Luke 22:54-62.
1. The first time, he denied knowing Jesus.
2. The second time, he denied being one of His disciples.
3. The third time being cornered, he cursed, swear and dismissed summarily the allegations by saying, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about !”

1. In all these years that I have been warning about the extreme danger of the cheap grace theology, I tried to show the believers of this false theology that they actually deny knowing Jesus by denying His words such as His caution against the lure of wealth and living in dissipation in life, and that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions and we may even be persecuted and hated for His name sake. By denying or dismissing His words is akin to being ashamed of His words.
2. And that they also deny being the disciples of Jesus if they do not take His demands of discipleship of giving up the hold of family, self and possessions seriously to heart. Luke 14:25-35.
3. To complete the denials, if I press too hard about the above two denials in my argument, these believers will simply dismiss me off by saying, “You have got it wrong” without telling me where I have got it wrong.
If these professing believers want to make the best of this life on earth just like the unsaved, they will lose it. They may gain the whole world but they will forfeit their souls. The tenet of this whole false theology is effectively being ashamed of identifying with a Suffering Saviour and Lord, refusing to be content with just food and clothing, and ashamed of His words of caution against the lure of the world.

To the chagrin of some, my regular writing to contend for the faith against the cheap grace theology is done in the hope that I can win some brothers back by the grace of God. James 5:19-20. At the very least, I hope to do my little part in fighting off the spiritual deception through exposing the flaws in this false theology. In fact, I will be so uncharitable and it will weigh on my conscience if I am indifferent to the terrible destiny of those who are misled by this false theology.

2 Pet 2: 1-3 NLT

But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. 3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

If we believe in the inerrancy and the authority of the Bible, then we have to believe that the stated real motive of the false teachers in proliferating false teaching is all about personal greed. Note the words “clever lies” in the above verses. The false teaching will be cleverly devised to sound so appealing and authoritative with the ulterior motive of getting your money.

(In other passages in the Scripture,  such motive is referred to as Balaam’s error. Balaam, who for the sake of gain, would still consciously go against the will of God despite nearly being judged by the angel of the Lord and saved by his donkey. He was ultimately judged. Num 22-24; Num 31:8; 2 Pet 2:15; Jude 1:11; Rev 2:14.)

Just as the enemy masquerades as an angel of light, his servants – the false teachers – will also masquerade as servants of righteousness. 2 Cor 11:13-15. They will always speak politically correct words pandering to the itching ears of their followers. They will avoid the bluntness of the truth and speak only feel good messages. Why will they do the opposite of pronouncing hard truths and risk losing these income generators in their congregation ? John 6:60-66.

Rev 2:1-21 NLT
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:
2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. 4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. 6 But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do…14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. 16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
20 “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.

It is very clear from the above Scriptural passage that our Lord’s main rebuke was for tolerating false teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, and the Jezebel’s spirit. It is sin for tolerating false teaching.

Exposing false teaching is serious business and urgent because it concerns eternal life and death of souls. James 5:19-20.  Let us be obedient in exposing false teaching instead of tolerating it for the sake of false peace and unity.

Jude 1:3-4,12,16-19,22-23 NLT

3 Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. 4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…12 When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you…16 These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want. 17 But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ predicted. 18 They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires. 19 These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them…22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.

The Scripture above makes a clear distinction on how we should deal with propagandists, victims and would-be victims of false teaching.

For the propagandists, we are warned that fellowship with them can shipwreck our faith. And the appropriate response is mentioned in 2 John 1:10-11, “10 If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. 11 Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.”

For the victims, we should show compassionate interest in guiding them out of such false teaching into the biblical truth.

For the would-be victims about to be lured away, we must give strong resolute warning and instruction as described in the imagery of snatching them away from the flames of judgment. We must also show our great disapproval of their sins despite showing mercy. That call for spiritual wisdom to handle such situation as the firm way of warning and instruction and hating the sins simultaneously may come across as condemnation.

“The Law sends us to the Gospel, that we may be justified, and the Gospel sends us to the Law again to enquire what is our duty being justified.” – Puritan Samuel Bolton.

“Keeping God’s Law is not the BASIS on which we are put right with God – but it is the RESULT of it. Again, keeping God’s Law is not the MEANS of our salvation – but it is the ESSENCE of it.” – John Stott.

In His encounter with the Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus our Lord said clearly that nobody can enter the Kingdom of God unless he or she is born of water and of the Spirit and he or she must be born again. This born again experience is best explained in Ezek 36: 25-27 :

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

We will be cleansed of our sin and we will be given a new heart and a new spirit. God will also put His Spirit in us to MOVE us to follow His decrees and be careful to keep His laws. That is the reality of sanctification as expounded by both the Puritan Samuel Bolton and John Stott. Ultimately keeping God’s Law is the essence and result of justification. The epistles of John also testify to the same teaching that whoever abides in Christ will also keep His commandments. 1 John 2:3-6.

We fully agree with the true biblical part of the hyper grace doctrine that we cannot earn our salvation through works or we are not put right with God by keeping the Law. But we completely disagree with the false erroneous part of the hyper grace doctrine that the Law is being dispensed with or abolished altogether. Our Lord made it very clear too that He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.

Gal 6:15 says, For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” and 1 Cor 7:19 says, “For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. ” Clearly we see that a new creation in Christ is equated to keeping God’s commandments.  St Paul was not contradicting himself as he confirmed in other parts of Scripture that when one is born again and is justified, God will put His Spirit in him or her and move him or her to keep His laws.

If the Bible ever contradict itself between one part of Scripture with another, it cannot be the Word of God for God’s truth has to be consistent and immutable. We have just seen in a mere few verses in the epistles of Paul, John, James and parts of Ezekiel and the gospels – they are harmonious on this same truth that the essence and result of justification, and not the means, is keeping God’s laws.

If God’s Spirit is truly in us, He will MOVE us to keep His laws. If we are indifferent to keeping God’s laws, we must re-examine our faith again for we reveal our true heart condition that we want nothing of the kind of life of holiness in heaven which we will be perfect as Christ is perfect. Just to ensure their followers do not examine themselves, a broadside of this false teaching not to examine oneself is frequently fired.  That is the kind of spiritual warfare.  Terribly subtle deception.

The epistles in the New Testament are full of exhortation to obey God’s commandments and to live a holy life. Search these three words “make every effort” and you will find at least 9 verses. Luke 13:24; Rom 14:19; Eph 4:3; Heb 4:11;Heb 12:14; 2 Pet 1:5; 2 Pet 1:10; 2 Pet 1:15; 2 Pet 3:14.

Heb 4: 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

Matt 12:31-32

³¹ And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³² Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

The unpardonable sin is identified here as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.   Jesus our Lord had performed a miracle and yet the Pharisees attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to be the work of the devil.

Our Lord rebuked 5 out 7 churches in Rev 2 and 3 for their sin and ended with this exhortation, “Whoever has ears,  let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”    And culminated in Rev 3:19 which is very clear that Jesus or His Spirit will reprove and convict the Christians of sin and call for us to be zealous and repent.

(Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.  Rev 3:19.)

It is bad enough to deny this work of the Spirit of Jesus to convict a Christian of sin but to attribute it to the work of the devil will be utter blasphemy similar to the above incident told in the Scripture to specifically warn us.

The false cheap grace teachers have preached that the definite and marvelous work of the Spirit in convicting us of sin is actually the work of the devil in robbing us of joy by making us sin conscious.

They are even audacious enough to say that all the theologians and pastors in the past had got it so wrong about the conviction of sin by the Spirit of Jesus and the need to confess our sins.

They have confused guilt with contrition.  Or the confusion of their followers may be deliberate.  Guilt is bondage but contrition is true worship.  Ps 51:17; Is 66:2.