Be Careful Who You Listen To

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. So now Paul is trying to reason with them. Look at verse 11. Verse 11, again, he says, I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

One commentator says this, his fears were that they had no genuine Christian principle. They could be led astray by anybody. That's the way it looked. So his fears were that they had no genuine Christian principle.

They had been so easily perverted and turned back to the servitude of ceremonies and rites that he was apprehensive that there could be no real Christian principle in the case. What pastor, and I'm still quoting from the commentator here.

What pastor has not often had such fears of his people when he sees them turn to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, or when having run well, he sees them become the slaves of fashion or some habit inconsistent with the simplicity of the gospel.

So what you need to understand is that this is not about judging people. That's not what this is about. This is about looking out for people. This is about caring for the flock. Any parent knows what this is like.

If you start seeing troubling behavior from your child, you want to do something. You want to help because you love them. You know, you're on their side. Right? A parent is on their child's side. The apostle Paul was on their side with the Galatians.

And I just want to tell you this morning, I am on your side. I don't care what happens. If you trust in Christ, hey, I am on your side. So Paul wants what is best for them. But, you know, thinking about children, you see something troubling, you want to help.

And even when you discipline them, it's for their own good. They don't always see it that way, right? And that's the problem when this kind of stuff happens in a church. People who are deceived, they don't necessarily see it that way.

If somebody is listening to a false teacher, you know, they start developing a bond between them and the guy on television or the guy on the radio. And then when a church leader comes and says, well, yeah, but here's what he teaches.

I don't think it's a good idea for you to be listening to that person. That offends people, right? So, and if that's ever happened to you, I know how that feels. So the people in Galatia, they didn't always take it that well.

And that's why Paul says, have I become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. He's trying to appeal to them that I care about you. All right, let's turn to Philippians chapter three. What was Paul's solution?

Paul’s Warning Against False Teachers and His Loving Appeal

Well, now he's changing his approach. And he reminds them how they first heard the gospel from him. He's making an appeal based on his love. He says in verse 12, brethren, I urge you to become like me.

So Paul, no doubt, shared his testimony with them. They had become close. They knew about him. He knew about them. So he's trying to make that connection and convince them, I'm on your side. I'm looking out for you.

What was Paul's testimony? Before he became a Christian. You know, Paul wasn't born a Christian.

You know that, right?

He wasn't born from the womb singing, to God be the glory. Of course, I don't think that song was around back then. Before he was saved, he was a strict religious Jew who did his best to obey the law of Moses.

Listen, if anyone could have been saved by keeping the Mosaic Law, it was Saul of Tarsus. That was his name before he was known as the Apostle Paul. So here in Philippians chapter 3, now he's basically writing the same type of thing to a different church.

What does that tell you? The Judaizers, they made the rounds.

Okay?

Philippians chapter 3, verse 2, Paul says what? Beware of dogs. You know, the Judaizers would have been calling the Gentiles dogs. Hey, these Gentile Christians, unless they get circumcised, as far as we're concerned, they're a bunch of dogs.

Paul says, no, you're the dog. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the mutilation. That's basically he's mocking the Judaizers who are demanding circumcision. You're mutilating people's body.

There's some hyperbole there. But verse 3, Paul says, for we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the.

Flesh.

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Why? Because Paul now goes into his testimony. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

Benjamin was sort of seen as the elite tribe at that moment in history. Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness, which is of the law.

What does Paul say? I kept the law better than anyone. What does he say in verse 7? But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for.

Christ.

When you came to Christ, was there something that you counted.

Loss?

Something that you loved or trusting and proud of? And you said, okay, that didn't do me any good. Matter of fact, it might have been pulling me away from the Lord. I count it, it's loss. I counted it loss for Christ.

Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung or rubbish that I might gain Christ.

You know what the Judaizers were teaching?

Dung.

They were teaching rubbish. False teachers who don't preach the true gospel. Paul said, I count all of that rubbish. What does Isaiah 64 verse 4 say? Our righteousness is as filthy rags. And what that's referring to is something worse than rubbish.

Verse 9.

And to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through what? Faith in Christ. The righteousness which is from God by faith.

All right.

Let's turn back to Galatians 4 and that's where we will close. You know, you want to go back into false religion. You want to get mixed up in the horoscopes and the psychic mediums. And you want to go into all this ideology from who, wherever it comes from.

It's going to lead you away from Christ. The only, and this idea of being saved by your works. All your works are as what? Filthy rags. It's rubbish.

It's dung.

Nothing you do is good enough to work your way to God. The only works that are going to save you are the works of Christ.

Jesus.

It's his works, his work on the cross. That is what saves us.

Jesus.

You want to talk about the law. Jesus kept the law.

He did.

He kept the law for us. And the exchange is he gives us all his righteousness. And in exchange, we, he takes all of our debt. He takes all of our sin, all of our debt. And he gives us all of his riches.

Now, Paul reminds the church of how they cared for him. Look at verse 13. They were close. Paul and the Galatians, things had gotten bad.

Why?

They were listening to the false teachers. They were turning the people against Paul. Look how close they were. Paul says, you know that because of my physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at first.

In my trial, which was in the flesh, you did not despise or reject. But you received me as an angel of God or a messenger of God. You received me as if I were Christ Jesus himself. That's their love for Paul.

And he says, what then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear witness, or bear you witness, that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. What does that tell you? Paul had an infirmity.

He had something wrong with his eyes. We don't know exactly what it was. But Paul was not an impressive guy. Like there's some false teachers on television who, wow, this guy, they look very impressive.

And they have eloquence of speech. What do they say about Paul's speech in the Corinthians? That it's contemptible. Like this guy, he's not much of a public speaker. And he's got physical problems. Like there wasn't anything about Paul that was special.

But they loved him. They loved him so much, if they could have, they would have taken out their own eyes and given them to him. That's love. That's commitment. Look at verse 16. What does he say? Because of the Judaizers, though, that relationship had been severed.

And now he says, I'm sure with much pain in his voice or in his pen, have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth. You know, I'm telling you this because I love you. I'm telling you this because I care about you.

If Paul didn't care about the saints in Galatia, why waste the time? Why write a letter? Hey, whatever, do what you're going to do. And Paul can do what he was going to do. He was burdened because he loves them.

I'll just speak personally for a moment. As your pastor, I do care about you and your life and the things you go through. And the teachings that are out there and how easy it is. Because I've seen people in seven years of pastoring this church, I've seen people who I thought this person was solid in the Lord.

And now they seem to have no interest. Or people that they were headed in the right direction. So encouraging. And then something happens. You know, something. They meet a friend. They start listening to the wrong people.

And it's tragic. That affects a pastor. That affects a deacon. That affects an elder. Paul loved the people. Verse 17, another translation puts it. I'm just going to read from another translation. It says, those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good.

They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them. We try to preach through the Bible chapter by chapter. It's not about me and my thoughts and my opinion. It's what Jesus taught.

It's what the apostles taught. False teachers want you to follow them and what they think and what they teach. So in conclusion, what's the takeaway here? When Christians start listening to false teachers, or people who have a false ideology that doesn't even seem religious, but when Christians start listening to false teachers, it turns them against the true teachers of God's word.

So Christians need to be careful about who they are listening to. Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? So when you tell someone they're listening to a false teacher, that can maybe not make them very happy.

So let me just say this, just a few generalities and we'll end. Any teacher who says or implies that there are many paths to God, that teacher should be marked and avoided. Any teacher who adds anything to the gospel, doesn't matter what it is, circumcision, baptism, justice,.

Whatever it is,.

Any teacher who adds anything to the gospel should be marked and avoided. And quite frankly, any preacher who consistently teaches the Bible out of context, where they're not going verse by verse, they're not explaining what those verses mean in context, that teacher should probably be avoided.

So as a follower of Jesus, again, be very careful about who you listen to. And people again are not just led astray, unfortunately, by preachers. It could be a TV personality, could be a politician. It could be a friend.

It could be a neighbor who likes to express their thoughts on things, kind of win you over to their side. There's all sorts of idols in our society. I mean, there's a show, American Idol. Well, that's not what they're.

Yeah, it is.

People look up to celebrities and when celebrities, celebrities love and sports stars love to give their opinions on things, people follow that. And so often it leads them away from Christ. Don't let that happen to you.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornett Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, with the grace of God be with you.