Daily Archive

In the rejection of authority, false teachers also reject the authority in the church. In fact, Titus 3:1 we’re told, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.” There are those that we are to be submissive to. There are those that we are to obey. Whether it’s in the civil life, whether it’s in family life, whether it’s in church life, God has established roles of authority and we’re to be surrendered to them and yielded to them.

False teachers despise authority. They believe they are the authority and usually they’ll use a line like this – if you try to speak against a false teacher, what will they say? “Touch not the Lord’s anointed.” What? That’s a bold statement. Going back to David saying he’s not going to touch Saul because God had ordained that Saul be anointed king, and as long as he was king, David knew he wasn’t. Saul was. Had David already been anointed at that point in time to be the next king? He had been anointed, but he still was not king yet, and so he said, I’m not going to lay a hand on Saul when he had an opportunity. He was yielding to authority. He was being obedient.

How false teachers take that and apply that to themselves is they believe that that means that because they’re a preacher that they’re untouchable. An untouchable preacher might as well be a leper theologically. Flee run the other way. We are not untouchable. We must be challenged. We must be kept in check because it is in our human nature to lead and to have the preeminence and want people to desire to hear what we have to say.

We don’t preach a supposed word from the Lord. We preach the sure, sanctifying, written word of God. This cannot be my word. This has to be God’s word – to read it, to teach it, to explain it, to say this is how it applies to life and this is not my opinion. If I teach you my opinion, my opinion is worthless. Get up and run away. Get out of here. You don’t need my opinion. You probably got one of your own. I’m sure we probably argue about it, but when it comes to the word of God, let’s together study it like iron sharpening iron.

There might be times of disagreement and even heat and debate, but let’s keep pushing on to understand the word of God because it is the word of God and we need to be understanding it. We need to be subjecting ourselves to it.

False teachers will not submit themselves. They are rebellious. They reject authority. Hebrews 13:7 says, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” How can you follow somebody who himself is not under authority? It’s to say this. A man who is not teachable should not be teaching. We need to be teachable, we need to be submissive, we all need to be under authority.

Those of us who are under-shepherds within the church, understand that’s exactly what we are, under-shepherds. That’s a good description for a pastor -teacher because I am under the Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. I’m just an under-shepherd. These are not my sheep, they are His sheep, but I’m going to give an account to Him about how I feed them and how I lead them. It’s not something I own, it’s something of which I’ve been made a steward and discipleship works the same way.

Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them—for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account—so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you.”