Proverbs 19:27, Danger! False Teaching Destroys!

December 20, Proverbs 19:27

Matt. 7:15-20; 26-27; 1 John 4:1-6 “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.”

Danger! False Teaching Destroys!

This reminds us of the words of our Lord. Beware of false prophets, and, Take heed what ye hear (Mk. 4:24). How much this warning is needed in our own day! False teaching goes largely unchallenged, especially if it comes from “highly reputed” Bible teachers from prestigious churches or colleges!

1. The Devoted Caution of a “Loving” Father (27): Oh, son, hear this loving appeal! In the previous verse it was a son but here it is my son. Loving fathers to beloved sons have repeated such appeals many times through the ages. Before the damage is irreparable, this loving father cries, Cease, my son, to hear the instruction to err from the words of knowledge. “Stop listening to schooling, which if you follow, will surely lead you astray.” The verb hear (shamah) carries the idea of “hear with interest, with attention.” It often includes obedience, yielding. The verb to err (shagah) means to be misled or deceived, either morally or mentally or both. The words of knowledge refer to God’s Law, the Bible. How alluring are all those voices from godless sources that our sons (and daughters) are hearing and heeding today! “The devil comes to us across the fields. Just when and where we think he cannot get at us, his temptations are sure to find us out” (CHS)! How tirelessly the devil works to corrupt the morals of the youth, and sadly, all too often, the loving father’s caution goes unheeded or unheard.

2. The Deceived Condition of a “Loosening” Son: He is just beginning to err from the words of knowledge. He is advised to loosen the ties of his childhood faith. Does not a bad creed inevitably lead to bad conduct, emphasising the evils of false teaching? Humanism began in the Garden of Eden, when Eve heard the instruction of the Serpent, which, in turn, led her to err from the words of knowledge, and the revolt of mankind against God was on. It was now a battle between man’s false claim to autonomy versus God’s true authority. Today’s Humanists accuse those who believe in God of “censorship of truth and repression of sexuality.” It is surely this that has helped open the floodgates of immorality now blatantly flaunted on TV, Stage, and Cinema today. “Naturalistic Humanism leads to a diminishing of man to a zero, and human life is lowered to the level of animal existence” (Francis Schaeffer). A modern writer boldly asserts: “Homosexual practices are against nature and against revealed truth…. It is something which God condemns as the ultimate sign of the decadence and degeneration in any culture.” Such a statement is openly vilified in our parliaments as “immoral,” which only proves that without the words of knowledge we have no basis for what is moral or immoral! “A quagmire is not the less dangerous because it is covered with beautiful verdure, and has the appearance of solid ground” (Lawson).

Thought: “No heresy is entertained with impunity” (Tozer).

Prayer: Lord, that our children will not “err from the words of knowledge.”