Devotion to the True God

Theme: Eight Qualities of the Heart That Resists Error

God is true and reliable, but we are not. What can make us susceptible to error is the state of our soul. Exhibit A is the Pharisees. Today we begin an examination of eight soul qualities that make us immune to false teaching.

1. Devotion to the True God

The first and most important quality of the heart immune to false teaching is sincere love for God as he reveals himself to be in the Bible, not who you think he should be. The last half of that sentence is crucial. Most people want God to conform to the values they or their cultures espouse. If God reveals himself in the Bible to be different than they want, many people ignore or reject those disagreeable parts of Scripture to maintain their false beliefs. False ideas of God make us susceptible to false teaching.

The list of God’s qualities that people in Western cultures reject is growing longer. Westerners increasingly balk at the Bible’s clear teaching about God’s holiness, hatred of sin, wrath and judgment, sovereignty, authority to determine how we express our sexuality and order our marriages and families, and his choice to save lost souls exclusively through belief in his Son Jesus Christ, whom he loves. For many people, these truths are deal-breakers. They reject the God revealed in the Bible and gladly fall into the arms of the false teachers, whether they be religious leaders, journalists, scientists, Hollywood celebrities, self-help authors, or motivational speakers. They may believe in a God, but he is not the God revealed in the Bible.

The unbiblical God is a lie. That God is a false God, a deception. That God is an idol, just as surely as if it were a statue of Baal. Those who choose to believe in a false God will not be saved by the true God. It is not enough to believe in a God; we must believe in the true God as he reveals himself to be in Jesus Christ and in the Bible, which Jesus affirmed as God’s eternal words.

We must love God as he is. If we do not, we must realize our hearts are twisted by sin and this corrupt world. We are the ones who have it wrong, not God. He is absolutely righteous and perfect, and so he will not change. We are the ones who must change. God deserves adoration not just in spite of the qualities that trouble us, but because of these qualities. His holiness is as adorable as his love. His justice is as adorable as his mercy. His wrath is as adorable as his tolerance. His consuming fire as his compassion. His law as his grace.

And so, first, to have a heart immune to false teaching, you must heed Moses when he warned about the test brought on by false prophets. “You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him” (Deu. 13:3–4). Such devotion keeps you in the truth.

Next week we look at the second soul quality that makes us immune to false teaching.