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In this message we shall cover further aspects of the degradation of the church.
Titus 3:10 and 11 say, “A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse, knowing that such a one has been perverted and sins, being self-condemned.” A factious man is a heretical, sectarian man who causes divisions by forming parties in the church according to his own opinions. The Gnostic Judaism referred to in the preceding verse must be related to this. The divisiveness is based on differing teachings. This is the reason that verse 10 comes after verse 9. Certain believers may have insisted on the teaching of the law and in so doing became divisive.
In verse 10 Paul charges Titus to refuse a factious man after a first and second admonition. In order to maintain good order in the church, a factious, divisive person, after a first and second admonition, should be refused, rejected. Because such divisiveness is contagious, this rejection is for the church’s profit that contact with the divisive one may be stopped.
In verse 11 Paul speaks a severe word, saying that a factious man has been perverted, that he sins, and that he is self-condemned. Literally, the Greek words translated “has been perverted” mean turned out of the way. It is more than being turned away from the right path. One who has been perverted in this way is spoiled, damaged, destroyed, with respect to God’s New Testament economy.
In Hebrews 10:25-29 Paul warns the Hebrew believers not to forsake the church to sin willfully, that is, to go back to Judaism to offer the sacrifice for sin which has been terminated.
Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.” For the Hebrew believers at their time and in their situation to forsake the assembling of themselves together was to forsake the new covenant way of contacting God, to forsake the church and return to their old religion — Judaism. This would break God’s administration of grace, thus constituting a serious sin before God.
Verse 26 continues, “For when we sin willfully after receiving the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” To sin willfully here means to forsake the assembling of ourselves together with the church. The Hebrew believers had been instructed to abandon Judaism and remain under the new covenant. If they would still return to Judaism, they would forsake assembling with the church. This constitutes a willful sin in the eyes of God after receiving the knowledge of the truth, after knowing that God had forsaken Judaism, which was formed according to the old covenant, and had established the new and living way of contacting God according to the new covenant. For the Hebrew believers to shrink back to Judaism and offer again the sacrifice for sin would be to do something which God had terminated.
Verse 26 says that “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” for those who sin willfully. If the Hebrew believers had forsaken the church and returned to Judaism, there would have remained no sacrifice for sin in the economy of God, for all the sacrifices of the old covenant have been altogether replaced by the one sacrifice of Christ. Since Christ has once for all offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 7:27; 10:10, 12), the sacrifice for sin has ceased (Heb. 10:2), having been taken away by Christ (Heb. 10:9).
We should not misinterpret Hebrews 10:26, thinking that if we sin willfully after being saved our sins cannot be forgiven because there is no more sacrifice for sin. The willful sin mentioned in this verse is forsaking the church and shrinking back to the old covenant after knowing that God had annulled it and established a new one. Forsaking the church to return to Judaism to offer the sacrifice for sin when there was no longer any such thing was, in the eyes of God, a willful sin.
Hebrews 10:29 says, “By how much do you think he shall be thought worthy of worse punishment who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” In the new covenant the Son of God replaces all the sacrifices of the old covenant. If the Hebrew believers would still return to Judaism to offer any of the old sacrifices, they would in effect be trampling underfoot the Son of God. They would be despising Him, disregarding Him, and putting Him under their feet.
Verse 29 speaks of regarding the blood of the covenant a common thing. If the Hebrew believers would have returned to Judaism to offer the old sacrifices and rely on the blood of the slain animals, they would in effect have regarded the precious blood of Christ a common thing. That would have been a serious disregard of the unique redemptive work of Christ. Since animal blood was common, it could be offered again and again. If, after receiving Christ, the Hebrew believers returned to Judaism to offer again the sacrifices for sin, they would have been making the blood of Christ the same as animal blood. This is an insult to Christ.
Hebrews 10:29 also speaks of insulting the Spirit of grace. Under the new covenant, through the redeeming blood of Christ, the Hebrew believers had become partakers of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:4), the Spirit of grace. If they had returned to Judaism to offer the sacrifices for sin, this would have been against the work of the Spirit of grace who was indwelling them and working in them and who would have been insulted by their willful sin.
To backslide to Judaism is to neglect God’s New Testament salvation. Hebrews 2:3 says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Salvation here refers back to what is mentioned in 1:14. It is God’s full salvation, from the forgiveness of sin to the sharing of the coming kingdom with glory. It not only refers to what Christ has done and will do for us but also to Himself, who is able to save us to the uttermost (7:25). He, the Son of God and the Son of Man, is our salvation. His wonderful person plus His splendid work is so great a salvation, a salvation which none of us should neglect. Our negligence will cause us to miss this so great a salvation’s most precious part-enjoying Christ as our saving life and rest in this age — and most glorious part — inheriting Christ’s kingdom with glory in the coming age. Therefore, we should not neglect so great a salvation. If we neglect it, we shall receive a just recompense regarding it (Heb. 2:2).
Second Peter 2:1 says, “There arose also false prophets among the people, as also among you there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” The Greek words rendered “secretly bring in” may also be translated “bring in by smuggling.” Literally, the Greek means to bring in alongside, to bring in sideways, to introduce a new subject for which the hearers are not prepared. Here it denotes the false teachers bringing in and introducing their false teachings alongside the true ones. These false teachings are called destructive heresies, or, literally, heresies of destruction.
“Heresy” is an anglicized Greek word, hairesis, which means choices of opinion of doctrine different from that usually accepted, “self-chosen doctrines alien from the truth” (Alford), thus causing division and producing sects. Here this word denotes the false and heretical doctrines brought in by the false teachers, the heretics, similar to the doctrines of today’s Modernism, which denies the deity of Christ and the redemptive death of Christ.
Heresy involves three matters: opinion, the causing of divisions, and the producing of sects. Therefore, opinion, divisions, and sects are the three constituents of heresy. Instead of building up the church, heresy destroys the church. For this reason, Peter speaks of destructive heresies, or heresies of destruction.
In Peter’s words, the false teachers even deny the Master who bought them. The word “Master” implies the Lord’s person and His redemptive work. The false teachers at Peter’s time, like today’s Modernists in their apostasy, denied both the Lord’s person as the Master and His redemption, by which He purchased the believers.
Speaking of the false teachers, Peter says in verse 15, “Forsaking the straight way, they have gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.” The straight way here, as the way of the truth (v. 2) and the way of righteousness (v. 21), is the living of an upright life without crookedness and bias, without unrighteousness.
Having gone astray, the false teachers followed the way of Balaam. Balaam was not a false prophet of the Gentiles but a real prophet. However, Balaam was one who loved the wages of unrighteousness (Num. 22:5, 7; Deut. 23:4; Neh. 13:2; Rev. 2:14).
First John 2:22 says, “Who is the liar if not he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who is denying the Father and the Son.” This is the heresy of Cerinthus, a first century Syrian heresiarch of Jewish descent, educated at Alexandria. His heresy was a mixture of Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity. He distinguished the maker (creator) of the world from God, and represented that maker as a subordinate power. He taught adoptionist Christology (Adoptionism), saying that Jesus became the Son of God by exaltation to a status that was not His by birth, thus denying the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. In his heresy he separated the earthly man Jesus, regarded as the son of Joseph and Mary, from the heavenly Christ, and taught that after Jesus was baptized, Christ as a dove descended upon Him. Then He announced the unknown Father and did miracles, but at the end of His ministry Christ departed from Jesus, and Jesus suffered death on the cross and rose from the dead, while Christ remained separated as a spiritual being, and will rejoin the man Jesus at the coming of the Messianic kingdom of glory. This heresy denied that Jesus is the Christ. According to John’s word, anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is the antichrist. Cerinthus was an antichrist, and his followers also were antichrists.
In verse 22 John says that the antichrist denies the Father and the Son. To confess that Jesus is the Christ is to confess that He is the Son of God (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31). Hence, to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny the Father and the Son. Whoever so denies the divine person of Christ is an antichrist.
In verse 23 John continues, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.” Since the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30; Isa. 9:6), to deny the Son is to be without the Father, and to confess the Son is to have the Father. To deny the Son here refers to the heresy that denies the deity of Christ, not confessing that the man Jesus is God.
In verse 24 John goes on to say, “As for you, that which you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If that which you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will abide both in the Son and in the Father.” “That which you heard from the beginning” is the Word of life, the eternal life which the believers heard from the beginning (1 John 1:1-2). Not to deny but to confess that the man Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is to let the Word of eternal life abide in us. In so doing we abide both in the Son and in the Father, and we are not led astray by heretical teachings concerning Christ’s person.
Verse 25 continues, “And this is the promise which He promised us, the eternal life.” The singular pronoun “He” here, referring to both the Son and the Father in verse 24, indicates that the Son and the Father are one. As far as our experience of the divine life is concerned, the Son, the Father, Jesus, and Christ are all one. It is not that only the Son and not the Father is the eternal life to us. It is that Jesus being the Christ as the Son and the Father is the eternal divine life to us for our portion.
Verse 26 says, “These things I have written to you concerning those who are leading you astray.” The Greek words “leading you astray” may also be rendered “deceiving you.” To lead the believers astray is to distract them from the truth concerning Christ’s deity and humanity by deceiving them with heretical teachings concerning the mysteries of what Christ is.
First John 4:1 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are out of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” The expressions “every spirit” and “the spirits” refer to the spirits of the prophets (1 Cor. 14:32) motivated by the Spirit of truth, or the spirits of the false prophets actuated by the spirit of deception. Hence, there is the need to discern the spirits by proving them to see whether they are out of God.
In verse 2 John goes on to say, “In this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is out of God.” Such a spirit is the spirit of a genuine prophet motivated by the Holy Spirit of truth, which confesses the divine conception of Jesus, affirming that He was born as the Son of God. Every such spirit is surely out of God. In this we know the Spirit of God.
Jesus was conceived of the Spirit (Matt. 1:18). To confess Jesus coming in the flesh is to confess that He was divinely conceived to be born as the Son of God (Luke 1:31-35). Since He was conceived of the Spirit to be born in the flesh, the Spirit would never deny that He has come in the flesh through divine conception.
In verse 3 John continues, “And every spirit which does not confess Jesus, is not out of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world.” The spirit in this verse is the spirit of a false prophet actuated by the spirit of deception, which does not confess Jesus coming in the flesh. This is the spirit of the errors of the Docetists. This name was derived from the Greek dokein, “to seem,” “appear to be.” The heretical view of the Docetists was that Jesus Christ was not a real man, but simply appeared so; He was just a phantasm. Docetism was mixed up with Gnosticism which taught that all matter was essentially evil. Hence, the Docetists taught that, since Christ is holy, He could never have had the defilement of human flesh; His body was not real flesh and blood but merely a deceptive, transient phantom, so that He did not suffer, die, and resurrect. Such heresy undermines not only the Lord’s incarnation, but also His redemption and resurrection. Docetism was a characteristic feature of the first antichristian errorists whom John had in view here and in 2 John 7. The spirit of such errorists is surely not out of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.
Second John 7 says, “Many deceivers went out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” The deceivers mentioned here were heretics, like the Cerinthians, the false prophets. These deceivers do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This means that they do not confess that Jesus is God incarnate. They deny the deity of Christ. In verse 7 John says that those who do not confess Jesus coming in the flesh are not only deceivers but also antichrists. An antichrist differs from a false Christ (Matt. 24:5, 24). A false Christ is one who pretends deceivingly to be the Christ, whereas an antichrist is one who denies Christ’s deity, denying that Jesus is the Christ, that is, denying the Father and the Son by denying that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 2:22), not confessing that He has come in the flesh through the divine conception of the Holy Spirit. Whoever denies the person of Christ is an antichrist.
Second John 9 says, “Everyone who goes beyond and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; he who abides in the teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.” Literally, the Greek word translated “goes beyond” means to lead forward (in a negative sense), that is, to go further than what is right, to advance beyond the limit of orthodox teaching concerning Christ. This is contrasted with abiding in the teaching of Christ. The Cerinthian Gnostics, who boasted of their supposedly advanced thinking concerning the teaching of Christ, had such a practice. They went beyond the teaching of the divine conception of Christ, thus denying the deity of Christ. Consequently they could not have God in salvation and in life.
In verse 9 John speaks of not abiding in the teaching of Christ. This is not the teaching by Christ but the teaching concerning Christ, that is, the truth concerning the deity of Christ, especially regarding His incarnation by divine conception.
According to verse 9, the one who goes beyond and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. But he who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. To “have God” is to have “both the Father and the Son.” It is through the process of incarnation that God has been dispensed to us in the Son with the Father (1 John 2:23) for our enjoyment and reality (John 1:1, 14). In the incarnated God we have the Son in His redemption and the Father in His life. We are thus redeemed and regenerated to be one with God organically so that we may partake of and enjoy Him in salvation and in life. Hence, to deny the incarnation is to reject this divine enjoyment, but to abide in the truth of incarnation is to have God, as the Father and the Son, for our portion in the eternal salvation and in the divine life.
In verse 10 John goes on to say, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not say to him, Rejoice!” The pronoun “him” refers to a heretic, an antichrist, a false prophet, who denies the divine conception and deity of Christ, as today’s Modernists do. Such a one we must reject, not receiving him into our house or greeting him. Thus, we shall not have any contact with him or share in his heresy, heresy that is blasphemous to God and contagious like leprosy.
Do not think that because we are told to love others we should receive a heretic. Concerning this, love does not avail. John says clearly that we should not receive an antichrist, a false prophet, into our house, and we should not even say to him, “Rejoice!” The point here is that we should have nothing to do with such persons and their contagious heresy.
In verse 11 John says, “For he who says to him, Rejoice, shares in his evil works.” Just as bringing to others the divine truth of the wonderful Christ is an excellent deed (Rom. 10:15), so spreading the satanic heresy, which defiles the glorious divinity of Christ, is an evil work. It is a blasphemy and abomination to God, and it is also a damage and curse to men. No believer in Christ and child of God should have any share in this evil. Even to greet such an evil one is prohibited. A severe and clear separation from this evil should be maintained.
Third John 9 and 10 say, “I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his works which he does, babbling against us with evil words; and not being satisfied with these, neither does he receive the brothers, and those intending to do so he forbids and casts them out of the church.” Diotrephes’ loving to be first was against the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 20:25-27 and 23:8-11, which place all His believers on the same level, that of brothers.
In 2 John 9 the Cerinthian Gnostics took the lead to advance in doctrine beyond the teaching concerning Christ. Here in 3 John 9 is one who was under the influence of Gnostic heretical doctrine, loving to be first in the church. The problem of Gnostic doctrine was one of intellectual arrogance; the problem of loving to be first was one of self-exaltation in action. These two evils are sharp weapons used by God’s enemy, Satan, to execute his evil plot against God’s economy. One damages the believers’ faith in the divine reality; the other frustrates their work in God’s move. Loving to be first brings in degradation.
The principle was the same both with the Cerinthian Gnostics in their desire to be advanced in doctrine and with Diotrephes’ love to be first: they wanted to be above others. The Cerinthians wanted to be above others in advanced thought, and Diotrephes wanted to be first.
Third John 10 exposes how domineering and evil Diotrephes was: he babbled against the Apostle John with evil words. The Greek word translated “babbling,” phluareo, comes from phluo, to boil over, to bubble up, to overflow with words, to talk idly; hence, to babble, to talk folly or nonsense. The babbling of Diotrephes was with “evil words.” The Greek word for “evil” here is poneros, which denotes something pernicious, something harmfully evil that affects and influences others to be evil and vicious.
In the degradation of the church some forsook the faith. This was the reason Jude wrote, “Beloved, using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, entreating you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). The faith in this verse is not subjective; it is objective. It does not refer to our believing, but refers to our belief, to what we believe. The faith denotes the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 2:18; 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints. For this faith we should contend (1 Tim. 6:12).
In verse 4 Jude goes on to say, “Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who of old have been written of beforehand for this judgment, ungodly men, perverting the grace of our God into licentiousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Literally, the Greek words translated “crept in unnoticed” mean to get in by the side, or to slip in by a side door. As the enemy crept in to sow tares among the wheat (see Matt. 13:25, 27-28), the apostates crept in unnoticed.
In this verse Jude speaks of ungodly men who pervert the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. The evil of these heretical apostates is twofold: perverting the grace of God into wantonness, that is, into the abuse of freedom (see Gal. 5:13; 1 Pet. 2:16), and denying the headship and lordship of the Lord. These two go together. Turning the grace of God into an abused freedom for wantonness requires denying the Lord’s rule and authority.
In verse 11 Jude speaks of the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the rebellion of Korah. “Woe to them! Because they have gone in the way of Cain, and poured themselves out in the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” The way of Cain is the way of serving God religiously after one’s own will and rejecting heretically the redemption by blood required and ordained by God. Those who follow the way of Cain are according to the flesh and envy God’s true people because of their faithful testimony to God (Gen. 4:2-8).
Jude says that the apostates have “poured themselves out in the error of Balaam for reward.” For the apostates to have poured themselves out in this way means that they gave themselves up to this error, rushed headlong into it, ran riotously in it. The error of Balaam is the error of teaching wrong doctrine for reward, although the one teaching knows that it is contrary to the truth and against the people of God. The error of Balaam also involves abusing the influence of certain gifts to lead the people of God astray from the pure worship of the Lord to idolatrous worship (Num. 22:7, 21; 31:16; Rev. 2:14). Balaam knew that what he taught was against God’s truth and against His people, and he knowingly taught it for gain.
In verse 11 Jude also speaks of those who perished in the rebellion of Korah. The Greek word translated “rebellion” here literally means contradiction, speaking against. The rebellion of Korah was a rebellion against God’s deputy authority in His government and His word spoken by His deputy (like Moses). This brings in destruction (Num. 16:1-40). God always speaks through a deputy authority. To rebel against this authority and speaking is, in principle, to be in the rebellion of Korah.
