Chapter 7 Seven Characteristics of False Teachers

Satan labors might and main by false teachers, which are his emissaries, to deceive, delude, and forever undo the precious souls of men.

Jeremiah 23.13 I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err.

Micah 3.5 The prophets make my people to err. They seduce them and carry them out of the right way into by-paths and blind thickets of error, blasphemy and wickedness, where they are lost forever.

Beware of false prophets, for they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7.15 These lick and suck the blood of souls.

Philippians chapter 3 verse 2. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. These kiss and kill. These cry peace, peace, until souls fall into everlasting flames.

Proverbs 7. Now the best way to deliver poor souls from being deluded and destroyed by these messengers of Satan is to discover them in their colors, that so, being known, poor souls may shun them and fly from them as from hell itself.

Now you may know them by these characters following.

1. False teachers are men-pleasers. Such are not true teachers. Gal. 1.10, 1 Thess. 2.1-4. They preach more to please the ear than to profit the heart.

Isaiah 30.10 Who say to the seers, See not, and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy deceits.

Jeremiah chapter 5 verses 30 and 31. A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?

False teachers handle holy things rather with wit and trifling rather than with fear and reverence. False teachers are soul murderers. They are like evil surgeons that skin over the wound but never heal it. Flattery undid Ahab and Herod, Nero and Alexander.

False teachers are hell's greatest enrichers. Not bitter, but flattering words do all the mischief, said Valerian, the Roman Emperor. Such smooth teachers are sweet soul poisoners.

This is my warning to my people, says the Lord Almighty. Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes. They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord. They keep saying to these rebels who despise my word, don't worry. The Lord says you will have peace. And to those who stubbornly follow their own evil desires, they say, no harm will come your way.

Jeremiah 23.16-17

2. False teachers are notable in casting dirt, scorn, and reproach upon the persons, names, and credits of Christ's most faithful ambassadors.

Thus Korah, Dathan, and Abiram charged Moses and Aaron that they took too much upon them, seeing all the congregation was holy. Numbers 16.3 You take too much state, too much power, too much honor, too much holiness upon you. For what are you more than others that you take so much upon you?

And so Ahab's false prophets fell foul on good Micaiah, paying of him with blows for lack of better reasons. 1 Kings 22.10-26

Yes, Paul, that great apostle of the Gentiles, had his ministry undermined and his reputation blasted by false teachers. For his letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. 2 Corinthians 10.10. They rather condemn him than admire him. They look upon him as a dunce rather than a doctor.

And the same hard measure had our Lord Jesus from the scribes and Pharisees, who labored as for life to build their own credit upon the ruins of His reputation. And never did the devil drive a more full trade this way than he does in these days.

Oh, the dirt, the filth, the scorn that is thrown upon those of whom the world is not worthy! I suppose false teachers mind not that saying of Augustine, He who willingly takes from my good name unwillingly adds to my reward. The proverb is, A man's eye and his good name can bear no jests.

3. False teachers are venters of the devices and visions of their own heads and hearts. Jeremiah 14.14 Then the Lord said unto me, These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts. This is my warning to my people, says the Lord Almighty. Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes. They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord.

Jeremiah 23.16 Are there not multitudes in this nation whose visions are but golden delusions, lying vanities, brain-sick fantasies? These are Satan's great benefactors, and such as divine justice will hang up in hell as the greatest malefactors, if the physician of souls does not prevent it.

4. False teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things both of law and gospel and stand most upon those things that are of the least importance and concern to the souls of men. 1 Timothy 1 verses 5-7 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith sincere, from which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, and understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. Matthew 23.23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

False teachers are nice in the lesser things of the law, and as negligent in the greater. If any man teaches otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. From such, withdraw yourself. If such teachers are not hypocrites in grain, I know nothing. The earth groans to bear them, and hell is fitted for them. Luther complained of such in his time as would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. This age is full of such teachers, such monsters. The high priest's spirit lives and thrives in these days.

5. False teachers cover and color their dangerous principles and sole deceptions with very fair speeches and plausible pretenses, with high notions and golden expressions. Many in these days are bewitched and deceived by the magnificent words, lofty strains and stately terms of deceivers. As strumpets paint their faces and deck and perfume their beds, the better to allure and deceive simple souls, so false teachers will put a great deal of paint and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies, that they may the better deceive and delude poor ignorant souls. They know sugared poison goes down sweetly. They wrap up their pernicious soul-killing pills in gold.

In the days of Hadrian, the emperor, there was one Ben Cosby, gathered a multitude of Jews together, and called himself Ben Kokuba, the son of a star, applying that promise to himself. But he proved Bar-Chosaba, the son of a lie. And so will all false teachers, for all their flourishes prove at the last the sons of lies.

6. False teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions than to better them in their lives.

Matthew 23.15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. They busy themselves most about men's heads. Their work is not to better men's hearts and mend their lives, and in this they are very much like their father the devil, who will spare no pains to gain proselytes.

For shame, says Epictetus to his Stoics, either live as Stoics or leave off the name of Stoics. The application is easy.

7. False teachers make merchandise of their followers.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways, and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

2 Peter 2 verses 1-3 They eye your goods more than your good, and mind the serving of themselves than the saving of your souls. So they may have your substance, they care not, though Satan has your souls. that they may the better pick your purse, they will hold forth such principles as are very indulgent to the flesh.

False teachers are the great worshippers of the golden calf. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain, prophets and priests alike. All practice deceit. Jeremiah 6.13 Kratish threw his money into the sea, resolving to drown it, lest it should drown him. But false teachers care not who they drown, so they may have their money.

Now by these characters you may know them, and so shun them, and deliver your souls out of their dangerous snares.