Some Angels Have Horns

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11. Today we're going to be looking at verses 5 through 15.
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The title of today's message, Some Angels Have Horns.
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During the latter part of the 20th century, three dramatic examples of the power of false teaching were demonstrated to the world by the destruction of dozens and even hundreds of lives.
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In 1997, 39 members of the
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Heaven's Gate cult founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles committed suicide because they were convinced that they would ascend a spaceship that they believed was trailing a comet called
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Haley -Bopp and that they would ascend to a higher plane of existence. Their bodies were found in black tracksuits and white tennis shoes in a rented mansion in California.
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Many of us remember those pictures coming out of that horrible event. Well, just a few years earlier, in 1993, 76 members of the
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Branch Davidian compound, which was an offshoot of the Seventh -day Adventist movement led by a man who considered himself a messianic figure,
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David Koresh. Because of an interaction with the authorities, 76 people lost their lives.
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And almost 20 years before that, in 1978, 909 people committed suicide by drinking cyanide laced
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Kool -Aid under the influence of Jim Jones, who was himself a former minister in the
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Disciples of Christ Church. And he turned from whatever he believed was
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Christian teaching, claiming himself to be divine and having the authority over his followers regarding their life and death.
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Now while these dramatic examples cause us all to pause and wonder how people could be so taken in by them that they would even be willing to give up their own lives in the following of these false teachers, rarely do false teaching have such a dramatic effect.
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More often, false teaching infects a body of believers or a church or a congregation slowly and over time.
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As false teachers come in and erode the confidence in the Scripture and in the
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Gospel and in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And in today's text, what we're going to see is
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Paul is going to address the false teachers that have made their way into the
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Corinthian community, into the church, and who have, as we saw last week, have brought with them a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different Gospel.
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He is going to say that these men are actually agents of Satan himself, that as Satan masquerades as an angel of light, so too do his ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness.
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What a terrible thing it is to consider that today there are men and women in pulpits across the world and across our land who are leading their people into destruction.
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What a terrible thing it is to consider that in 2 ,000 years this problem is not yet over.
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Let's stand together and read God's Word, beginning at verse 5.
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I'll be reading from the English Standard Version. Paul says,
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Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles.
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Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
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Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached
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God's Gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.
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And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need.
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So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
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And why? Because I do not love you, God knows I do. And what
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I am doing I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.
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For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
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And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
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So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
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Their end will correspond to their deeds. Let us pray.
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Our Father and our God, we come to you in Jesus' name. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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And we know that at the name of the Lord Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to the glory of God the
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Father. So Lord, we come in his name and I ask you today,
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Lord, that you would keep me from error. For Lord, I am a fallible man. I am capable of preaching error and I do not want to for the sake of your name, for the sake of my conscience, and for the sake of those who are here, who are listening.
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I pray, oh God, keep me from error. And I pray,
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God, that your word would go forth and do what only your word can do. And that is change the hearts of men and women by the power of your spirit.
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For the believer today, I pray that this would be a call to greater discernment. Who are we sitting under?
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Who are we listening to? Who are we allowing to come and teach us the word?
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Who are we opening ourselves to? And for the unbeliever today, for the one who may be among us for the first time or maybe for the hundredth time and has yet to bow the knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, whether they be young or old, I pray, Lord, that you would use this message to proclaim the gospel to them again, that they would hear the gospel, that they would recognize their sin, recognize
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Christ as the only Savior, that they would turn from their unbelief, that they would trust in him by the power of your spirit, through the regenerating work that only you can do.
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And I pray, oh God, that you would bring forth life from their dead hearts.
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And Lord, we pray all of this in Jesus' name. As I was preparing this week to preach this message,
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I thought about how dangerous some men can be.
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A bad doctor is dangerous for the body. A bad politician is dangerous for liberty.
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A bad monarch is dangerous for a kingdom. But none are so dangerous as a bad preacher.
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For while all of those other men are dangerous to our bodies, to our freedoms, and to our nations and kingdoms, only the preacher is dangerous to our soul.
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For he can lead us astray. Some angels have horns.
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Some men who stand in the pulpit do not seek to do us good, but rather to do evil.
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Some do evil, perhaps slightly by ignorance, but are yet evil still.
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The book of James chapter 3 tells us, let not everyone become a teacher, for teachers will be held to a greater judgment.
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That one verse should be the verse that every man meditates upon when he considers that he might be called into the ministry.
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I will say it is the verse that, for a season, kept me from even wanting to take a step forward in ministry for fear of that very reality.
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Because it is a responsibility when you're called to preach. Every Sunday I pray the same message, the same prayer,
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Lord keep me from error. Those of you who have been here 5 years, 10 years, some of you even 20 years, know
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I've not ceased to pray that prayer every time I preach. Because it is my legitimate fear to preach what is not right.
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It is a dangerous thing to stand in God's pulpit and to be flippant and to be foolish.
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Moreover to preach what you know is wrong but sounds good. Some guys will say, well it just preaches so good.
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You're laughing because you know what I'm talking about. Dr. James White tells a story of a man who was preaching back when he was in a bigger
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Southern Baptist church and he was preaching a text and he came to somewhat of a novel interpretation of the text and knowing that Dr.
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White was a Greek scholar, he went to him and asked him, is this a right understanding of this text and Dr. White said, well
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I'll go and I'll spend some time with it and I'll come back and let you know and he went and spent the time with studying the text, came back and he said, no that's not a proper understanding of this text from the original language.
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Well lo and behold a few weeks later it was that man's opportunity to preach and he preached and he went ahead and preached it. After the sermon he's passing the corridor,
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Dr. White's walking one way, he's walking the other way and as they pass by one another, Dr. White just looks at him and he says, it just preaches so well.
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It's a dangerous road. Beloved, it is a very dangerous road and many men walk it.
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We've been studying through the book of 2 Corinthians now for several months and as I have noted the book can be broken down into three parts if you were to look at the book as a whole and sort of take a snapshot of it.
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This is Paul's personal defense of his ministerial integrity against those who are in Corinth who are calling into question his integrity, his teaching, even his own personal nature that he's not a man who can be trusted.
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We see in the first seven chapters Paul defends the integrity of his ministry, he calls himself a minister of the new covenant, he calls himself a minister of reconciliation and he describes over and over again the right understanding of the gospel and what he came to preach when he came to Corinth and some of the most beautiful theological passages are found in that first seven chapters of 2
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Corinthians. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5 and 21 that God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we could in him become the righteousness of God.
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Then we get to chapters 8 and 9 and we find some of the most precious teaching on the subject of giving in all the
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Bible because Paul still wanted to encourage the church at Corinth that they had made a commitment to give to the churches in Jerusalem.
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Macedonia had demonstrated their willingness to give and Paul says as the Macedonians have given please you also need to be willing to give, you've made a commitment and you need to follow through with that commitment, the churches are in need.
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And then we get to chapters 10 to 13 and as I've noted in previous weeks some believe chapters 10 to 13 don't even belong in the letter they believe, it's a separate letter that was later stitched together,
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I don't believe that but I understand how they come to that conclusion because chapters 10 to 13
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Paul begins to go on the offensive and it would be easy to consider that this might even be the severe letter that Paul mentions in chapter 2 when he says that he had sent a severe letter that was meant to rebuke the people because the latter four chapters of this book are a tremendous rebuke.
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Again I don't think that we should separate the letter out that way, I don't think that opinion is correct but I understand why we would come to that conclusion if someone did because it is an offense and that's why
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I say we have Paul on defense in chapters 1 -7 we have the call to giving or generosity in 8 and 9 and then we have this time where Paul goes on offense.
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In chapter 10 he says he is waging war, he says I'm not waging war according to the flesh,
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I'm waging war according to the spirit, he understands he is in spiritual warfare against these false teachers, he says his opponents are judging themselves by themselves and because of that they are fools, they are basically having a contest of who is greater and they are lifting each other up, promoting one another but he says
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I'm commended by God and then in the first four verses which we looked at last week of chapter 11
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Paul tells the Corinthians I have a divine jealousy for you and we said what does that mean?
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That means Paul looks at them as if they are his daughter who he has betrothed to their husband who is
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Christ, he says I have a divine jealousy for you because a rapist has made his way into our family.
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I know that's a dramatic example but that's what he says, I want to present you as it were a pure virgin to Christ and here have come these men who want to ravage you spiritually, these dangerous men are there and they want to bring you a false
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Jesus and a false spirit and a false gospel and so Paul is concerned as a father would be concerned for the purity of his daughter,
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Paul is concerned for the purity of the Corinthian church and he says I have a divine jealousy for you,
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I want to protect you from this false teaching. So now we come to verse 5, sometimes
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I will have an alliterated outline, I didn't have that this week because I simply want to walk through the text and trying to find the breaking points and adding in alliteration was a little bit more difficult because this so flows together as one, almost one complete thought as he's going through two major sections if you want to say verses 5 to 11,
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Paul is going to be talking about the super apostles and he's going to compare himself with them, comparing his ministry as one that has been given out of grace and in freedom, he has not asked for anything for it, he's going to compare that to these super apostles and we're going to talk about who they are in a moment.
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But then we get down to verses 12 through 15, he's going to identify them as actually being false teachers, false apostles and men who are agents of Satan.
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So that's the break as we will break it today, verses 5 through 11 and then verses 12 to 15.
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So let's look first at verse 5, Paul says,
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Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles, who
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Parleon Apostolos. Super apostles, now who is he talking about?
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Some of your Bibles say imminent apostles and that has led to some questions about who
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Paul is referring to here. Some people believe that when
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Paul says I am not in the least inferior to the super apostles that he's referring to the original 12 apostles, that that's who he's referring to by the super apostles.
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And if you take the word super there, which is translated who
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Parleon, that word, if you take it to mean imminent, then I understand how you might arrive at that conclusion.
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Paul's saying I'm not the least inferior to Peter, James, John and the rest.
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And I understand how someone could come to that conclusion. That is not the position that I take, but I do want to at least give it its moment to say if that's the position that you come down on today, it's okay if you're wrong.
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Now I just don't understand it that way. I don't think that's what Paul's saying. I think if you compare this to verse 12, 13, where he talks about false apostles,
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I think he's still within the same context. So when he says super apostles, I don't believe he's referring to those men who would be the original 12, but I think what he is referring to there are those men who have set themselves up in Corinth as men of high stature or men of authority, men who would put themselves in the position of being over others and identify themselves as apostles or self -identified apostles.
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Again, he says in verse 13, such men are false apostles, pseudo -apostolos.
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Is it not true that there are men who set themselves up over other men as if they themselves are something special?
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The term here, huperion, would later, if you've ever heard, if you've ever studied any of the
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German language, and I've very little studied, but you hear the term uber.
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Now we're most familiar with uber as the car that comes and picks you up from the airport if you don't want to take a taxi cab.
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But in German, uber is the idea of being above or excellent or super, and you'll remember back in the middle part of the last century the idea of the
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German understanding himself as the ubermensch, the superman, the man who is above other men.
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Well this same concept, this same idea I believe Paul is using, obviously I'm being a little anachronistic,
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I'm reading back into it because German is a later language, but still the same idea, huperion is the idea to rise above, to be the one who is over others.
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The one who puts himself in a position of high estate. He's the celebrity pastor.
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We have those today, don't we? It's always dangerous
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I think when someone gets infatuated with celebrity pastors because of two reasons.
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One, you end up putting men on platforms that they inevitably will fall from.
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You raise a man up to a position that he cannot fail, and when he does, it's devastating, but also it ends up diminishing the importance of the local church and the local pastor.
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How many times, elders, how many times have we, well Vody Bauckham said, well
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Vody can be wrong. Am I right? Yeah, I'm looking at you because you know what
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I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm looking at you Tim. I'm looking at Mike. But we put these men up on these pedestals.
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We say, look if he said it, it must be right. Why? Because he said it. The danger of celebrity culture is all around us and it's made its way into the church, but it's not new.
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There are celebrity pastors, if you want to use that term in the first century, the super apostles. These are men who were known for their great oration skills.
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In fact, in this time in history, a person who was trained in Greek rhetoric, who was able to have this powerful ability to give speaking and to go about speaking could command a hefty fee for his speaking.
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What else did people have to pay for? What else did people have to be entertained by? What else did people have to do? There were no theaters like, well,
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I guess they had theaters, but not like the movie theater where there's a show every two hours. So these guys would go about and they would demonstrate through their impressive oration skills and people would pay hefty fees to sit and listen to them.
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Paul says, I am not in the least inferior to these celebrity pastors.
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I'm not in the least inferior to these super apostles.
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Even if I am, verse 6, even if I am unskilled in speaking, and I think this is
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Paul being somewhat humble. I don't think he was a person who didn't know how to speak in public.
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Certainly he was a powerful preacher, but he didn't have what these men claimed to have, this training in Greek rhetoric and this ability to command great crowds and great fees with his speaking.
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He says, even if I am unskilled as they are in speaking, I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
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You see, Paul is saying, consider the fact that I am bringing to you the very words of God.
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It may not have the polish. It may not have the rhetoric. It may not have what those men have, but I have brought to you the knowledge of God.
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So what I may lack in speaking, I do not lack in knowledge, and I'm bringing to you the knowledge of God.
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Now beginning in verse 7, he's going to begin talking about him not receiving pay for preaching.
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So let's look at that. He says in verse 7, or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached
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God's gospel to you free of charge? Very quickly, just something I like to point out any time I come across it in scripture.
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Notice he calls it God's gospel. Notice that it is in the possessive. It's God's gospel.
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We see that same thing in Romans where he calls it the gospel of God. This is God's gospel.
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He said, did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel to you free of charge?
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Apparently there was an accusation against Paul that Paul coming and not receiving funds from the
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Corinthians was wrong. You'll remember when Paul went into Corinth, he worked with his hands.
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He worked as a tent maker. And we're going to learn in just a moment, he also received money from other churches that he had planted, but he did not take money from the
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Corinthians. And these self -appointed apostles, these super apostles are calling into question
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Paul's skills as a teacher, and they're calling in his integrity into question. So Paul points back to the fact, hey,
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I never took anything for what I gave you. In fact, he says, I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.
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Now this term robbed here is, it comes from a word which means to spoil or to plunder or to strip.
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It is the idea of robbery, but the word is being used in a way that is hyperbolic.
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Paul is not saying I literally held anyone up at gunpoint and took their money, but rather he's saying, because I didn't want to take from you,
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I took from other churches while I was serving you. So rather than taking from them when
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I'm with them, I'm taking from them when I'm not with them so that I don't have to take from you.
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And he tells us who it is in verse 9. He says, and when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs.
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So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. So he says the
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Macedonians have supplied my needs so that I didn't have to take anything from you.
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Now, I want to stop for just a moment and say this because it's important. There would have not been anything inherently wrong with Paul receiving assistance or pay from the
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Corinthians because there's nothing wrong with a minister receiving pay for ministering the gospel.
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In fact, the opposite is true. The Bible tells us that if a man preaches the gospel, he should make his living by the gospel.
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We read this in first Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 13. It says, do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
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Verse 14, in the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
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I've had very, I've had a lot of conversations over the years with men who have called into question my integrity because I'm a full -time minister.
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People say, if you get paid to minister, you are a, what's the phrase? You're a hireling.
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That's the term that's often used. Paul doesn't say that. Paul tells us that a minister can be and should be paid, especially, what does the
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Bible say? Especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
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If you don't think preaching and teaching is a labor, it is. It is labor.
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It is work. In fact, Charles Spurgeon made the point, he said sometimes the hardest part is the, and he talks about the posture of the person who sits hunched over his desk writing and thinking and his mind is engaged in what he's doing.
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He does it for hours at a time, sometimes not even getting up to get something to eat because his mind is so focused on what he's doing. By the time he gets up, his legs are asleep.
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They don't even work as he's trying to make his way away from his desk. It's labor. It's laborious to study and to do it right.
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So there is nothing inherently wrong with a minister receiving pay. But what Paul did say to the
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Corinthians, going back again to 1 Corinthians 9, he said this. He said, if we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much for us to reap material things from you?
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If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we also. Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
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Paul has chosen not to take from the Corinthians so as not to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel.
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So that there be no calls or questions regarding his integrity in his work with the
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Corinthians. He has chosen not to receive money from them so that no one could lay an accusation against him.
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And one of the greatest accusations that's often laid against ministers is they're in it for the money.
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And I would even say this, greed was probably the motivation of Paul's enemies. It was probably the motivation of those who were opposing him.
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They would take the money, but Paul would not. So we move on to verse 10, and it says, as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
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Now, Achaia, of course, is where Corinth was. So Paul's just expanding out the idea. He says, this truth of Christ that is in me will not be silenced.
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Now, why would he need to say this? Because it was in fact the goal of the super apostles to silence him.
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Going all the way back to the opening chapters of 2 Corinthians, we see them calling his integrity into question because he didn't come when he said he was going to come.
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And so they say he's a man who doesn't live up to his word. They call into question what he has taught.
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And Paul has said, I'm preaching the truth. And they're calling him a man who preaches error. All of these things.
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And Paul says here, as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced.
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As I said, the goal of the super apostles are to silence Paul. But he refuses to be silenced.
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He's already stated, I have a divine jealousy for you. I have a divine love for you.
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Just two chapters back, he said, you are in my sphere of influence. God has given you to me.
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There is no way I'm going to be silent and watch you be mistreated, watched you be led astray.
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I will not be silent. I will not shut up. And why?
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Because I don't love you? Because I don't love you?
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Is that what they're saying about me? They're saying that I'm doing this for some other motivation?
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Is it because I don't love you? God knows I love you.
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And what I am doing, verse 12, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boast admission, they work on the same terms as we do.
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Again, he's focusing on the false teachers. He says right here in verse 12, what
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I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claims of those who would claim to work or who would claim that they work on the same terms as we do.
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What is he saying here? He's essentially saying this. I am going to continue to fight this battle.
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I am going to continue to undermine or I think some of the translations say to bring down the men who are doing this to you.
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I'm going to continue to go against them. I'm going to not be silenced by them. I'm going to continue to fight against them because they're claiming something that's not true.
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They're claiming to work on the same terms we do. Some people think that that means that they were claiming to work for free.
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That's Albert Barnes's understanding in his commentary that basically that they were saying they're working for free just like Paul did.
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I don't think that's the case because I actually think them calling Paul into question part of what they were calling him into question about was that he didn't take money.
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Look at this guy. He does what he does for free. It's not even worth anything. You know how people will often, and by the way,
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I want to say this. This is maybe a departure, but not. Oftentimes when you give things away for free, people think they're not worth anything.
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So sometimes it's better to charge for something even if you charge little because if people think that it costs something, it's worth something.
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I thought about this some, and again this little bit of a departure, I've thought about this sometimes with the academy because our academy here is a two -year training program for ministry.
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We offer it to anybody who wants to come. It's absolutely free. Sometimes I think if we charge 10 bucks a class, we'd get more people because people would think there's something to it because it's a cost, but I just don't want to charge for it.
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I want people to be able to come free of charge. I've always felt that way. We've done it now. This is our sixth or seventh year doing the academy, but I thought sometimes if we charge 100 bucks a class, we'd get more people.
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Charge 1 ,000 bucks a class, you'd be full because they think you're really getting something. People think if they pay for it, it's more valuable for some reason, right?
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You give someone something, it's not worth anything. Paul has given himself to the Corinthians. He's given himself freely.
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He's preached the gospel freely, and the guys are challenging him for it. Look at this. Look at this guy. He doesn't even have enough intelligence or enough oratory skills to charge for what he's doing.
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We command the hefty fee. By the way, we're not going to be charging for the academy.
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Just to back up just for a moment. We're going to keep that free. The idea is,
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I think here, Paul is saying they claim in their boast submission that they serve on the same terms as we do.
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I think what Paul is actually saying is they claim to have the same authority we do. I don't think this is so much about the pay or not pay at this point.
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I think what Paul is saying here is these people are claiming to be apostles. Has he not already said they call themselves super apostles?
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Is he not only in a moment going to say they're false apostles? These people are claiming to be apostles. You understand what that claim, the level of a claim that would be?
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That's a high claim now. By the way, there are no apostles now, at least not in the capital
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A sense of apostle. That office has ceased.
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If you want to use the term apostle for a person who sent a missionary or something like that, it can be possibly appropriate, but certainly the capital
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A office of apostle. Brother Bert and Brother Andy's preaching through the book of Acts right now. That's the apostolic church.
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That's the apostolic age. That's the big apostolic that we refer to. The pope, by the way, is not an apostle.
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These men in the first century, when Peter is still alive, when
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Paul is still alive, these men are willing to call themselves apostles and to put themselves over those men.
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Imagine the hubris a man would have to have to say that he is a super apostle in the lifetime of Paul and Peter.
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Paul says, I'm going to continue to do what I have been doing. I'm going to undermine these men.
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I'm going to try my best to destroy what they are trying to build because what they're building is false.
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The Bible tells us we should pray for our enemies and we should, but that does not mean that we have to pray for our enemy's success.
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Think on that just for a moment. If somebody's mission is to destroy the church,
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I pray for them, but not for their success. Somebody's mission is to tear our country down.
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I pray for them, but not for their success. I want them to not be successful in the approach, in the thing that they're going after.
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Paul is here saying, I want to undermine what they're doing because what they're doing is destroying the church.
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Now we get to verse 13 and this is really where the fire begins to burn because Paul just outright, no matter who you think he was talking about in verse 5, and again
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I contend that the super apostles are the same people he's talking about in verse 12.
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Even if you think in that particular verse he was talking about the the 12 apostles and that's the super apostles,
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I don't think so, but even if you do, when you get to verse 12, there's no question he is now addressing the false teachers in Corinth, absolutely.
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And in verse 12 he says, or excuse me, verse 13, he says, for such men are false apostles.
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He pulls no punches. Bam, bam, bam. He says they're false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
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They're fake, they're phony, they're liars, they're masked villains. King James says they transform themselves and that's a fairly good translation of the word, the synonym for this
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Greek word. The Greek word is a little hard to say so I'm not going to ruin it for you, but it's a synonym of the word metamorphosis and the idea is that they change themselves to assume an appearance.
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They change themselves to assume an appearance of something that they're not and this term is used three times.
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It's used once in verse 13, once in verse 14, once in verse 15. The same word is used over and over to identify the false apostles who disguise themselves and then it says satan disguises himself and then it says satan's ministers disguise themselves, which they are of course the false apostles in verse 13.
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He says such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ and no wonder and no wonder for even satan himself, excuse me, for even satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
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You know, studying, preparing, thinking,
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I got to thinking it is amazing how little we know about satan.
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We know that he's real, not just an imagination of men.
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He's not just a figment or some kind of fairy tale story. We know that he's real.
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Scripture is absolutely clear about that. Not just a personification of evil.
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He is an evil creature and he is a creature. He's created. He is not like God.
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He is not eternal. So we know he's real. We know he's a creature.
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We know he's fallen. Scripture tells us that, that pastors need to be careful because they don't want to fall into the same sin as satan, which is pride.
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So we know that there's a fall of satan. We don't know when it happened. There is no, there is nowhere in scripture where it tells us when it happened.
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There's a couple of passages that people have interpreted to refer to satan in Ezekiel and Isaiah.
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I'm not certain that either one of them is absolutely pointing to satan. I have a lot of questions about that, but we know that he was in the beginning.
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Because he's in the garden. Doesn't say satan. It simply says the serpent, but later in the book of revelation, it tells us that satan, that ancient serpent, right?
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So it identifies for us if we interpret scripture as scripture. We can discern who the serpent is. We know he's there.
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We don't know when the fall took place, but we know what resulted from the fall and that is him seeking to bring man down.
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And we talked about this last week, how he seduced Eve and brought Eve down and through her,
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Adam and through Adam, us. So we know he's real.
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We know he's a fallen creature. We know he is our enemy. The bible is so clear that he goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
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He's not our friend. Can't believe anybody would be a luciferian satanist.
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How dumb to side with your own enemy as if they were your friend.
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We know that he is subtle and crafty. The bible tells us those very things.
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And one of the ways that he demonstrates his craftiness is that he disguises himself as an angel of light.
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He disguises himself as a friend of the faithful. People often consume themselves.
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I mentioned luciferianism. People consume themselves with fear about the occult. Luciferianism.
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We're getting into October now. There's going to be a lot of talk about Halloween and ghouls and goblins and everybody's always concerned about that.
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But the reality is this. Satan is much more interested in being in the pulpit than anywhere else.
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People say, oh well there's a luciferian statue put up. It's stupid. Satan isn't into all that.
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Satan is here. Not here, but I mean, let me back up. Not in this one. Satan makes his way into the pulpit.
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I said this a few years ago. I'll say it again. I don't have it written in my notes. I have to do it from memory.
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If satan could create a religion, it would be a religion where everyone was generally nice to each other.
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Everyone was generally moral and clean. Everyone was generally safe to be around and everyone generally worshipped in a general way.
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But it wouldn't be the true God of scripture and it would not be worship in accordance with his word.
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And what I just described to you is Mormonism. Mormons are nice.
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They're clean cut. They're moral. They worship in a general way which seems Christian, but it's not.
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Beloved, that's what satan does. Is he creates something that looks like the real thing, but it's just enough off that it will damn your soul.
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Satan is crafty and subtle and he stands in the pulpits, not just in the
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Mormon churches, not just in the Jehovah Witnesses churches, but he stands in some
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Calvinistic churches. That's right. He stands in some Baptist churches.
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He stands in some Presbyterian churches. And my brother here is a pastor from a
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Presbyterian church. I didn't mean to call you out, brother, but my brother's here today. I give him a nod. Yes, you too, right?
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We all know they're there. They're in all of our churches. These dangerous men.
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They're the servants. Look again at verse 15. It is no surprise that his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
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What a fearful thing it is to know that there are men who are out there disguising themselves as servants of righteousness, but they are actually servants of satan himself.
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We know it happens too. We know Paul's not exaggerating here because of the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 7 as he's beginning to draw the sermon on the mount to an end in history.
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As he's drawing that sermon on the mount to an end, he says in chapter 7, on that day many will come to me and say,
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Lord, did we not do many mighty works in your name?
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Did we not do many miracles in your name? And I will say unto them, depart from me.
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I never knew you. You're a worker of lawlessness.
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Oh, what a scary thing it is to be that man on judgment day. What a frightful thing.
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Notice what it says. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
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Their end will correspond to their deeds. The end of the false teachers is the same end as satan himself, and to know what that end, we need only go to the end of Revelation and read where it says that they were cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone forever.
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The job of the preacher is dangerous work. He's called to preach the truth.
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He's called to stand for the truth. He's called to be a man of integrity. He's called to be above reproach. All of those things never have an expiration date, and the man who preaches falsely the man who, especially the man who preaches for his own gain, for the filling of his self and his own bank account, the man who hurts
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God's people to his own benefit, will experience a stricter judgment.
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Now, I want to say something as I draw to a close. Paul is not calling men heretics who differ on secondary matters, and I think this is important, because shame on me if any of you were to leave this place today and think that we're the only ones bound for glory.
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I think sometimes that can be the false assumption, is when you preach boldly that you automatically assume that everyone who disagrees with you about anything is wrong and false and on their way to hell.
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After the Protestant Reformation, when denominationalism began to spread and began to divide the church up into different denominations, one thing was held to be certain, and that there was a gospel that was preached within those denominations, and that those denominations, while they would differ on secondary matters, could still uphold the salvation of those in other denominations, because they held to the things that were central and essential and firm.
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Beloved, I disagree with people in other denominations, but if they hold to the same gospel that Paul preached and that Jesus gave us, if they hold to that gospel, they're my brother and sister in Christ.
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So when we talk about false teachers, I want you to go back in your mind to what we learned last week.
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What do the false teachers teach? A different Jesus. Jesus is not divine.
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A Jesus who is not the Son of God. A Jesus who cannot save you from your sins. A Jesus who did not go to the cross.
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That's a false Jesus. A different spirit. Not the Holy Spirit of God, but some other spirit that they bring in.
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Some wicked or sinful spirit that they bring in. The spirit of licentiousness. The spirit of legalism.
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All of those spirits are false spirits brought into the church, and they are dangerous. And thirdly, a false gospel.
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If a man preaches a false gospel, he's a false teacher. No matter how eloquent, no matter how articulate, if a man teaches a gospel which is not based on the truth of the work of Christ being sufficient for your salvation, that your salvation is not based upon what you do, but upon what
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Christ has done. And if he calls you to something other than faith in the finished work of Christ, then he's a false teacher.
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You understand? That's what these men in Corinth were doing. The super apostles most likely were similar to the
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Judaizing cult that had gone into Galatia, who had brought with them the legalism of Judaism into the precious gospel of Christ, and had mixed it together and created a hybrid which was not a gospel at all.
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And Paul tells us that in Galatians. He said, if any man comes to you with a gospel which is not the gospel that we preached, let him be accursed.
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So I say to you today, there is only one gospel.
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It is a gospel that is based on the grace of God, which means it is a gift. It cannot be earned, purchased, or given.
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It must be received. God gives it, we receive it. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not by our good works.
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So beloved, we stand firmly arm in arm with those who preach the gospel, and we encourage those churches growth, and we pray for those churches to succeed.
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But for the false teachers, along with the apostle
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Paul, we pray that their message and ministry would be undermined, that it would fall and fail, and not lead people astray.
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We want to see truth succeed, and it will, because Jesus said,
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I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this opportunity to preach your word again, and I pray,
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Lord, that we would be discerning in who we listen to, that we would know that there are men and women who stand in the pulpits, men who present themselves as angels, but they have horns,
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O God. Angels with horns, devils in disguise, who seek to destroy the people of God.
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And I pray that we would carefully discern what we hear, how we worship, and I pray,
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O God, that as the gospel was presented today, Lord, that if there are people here, whether they be young or old,
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Lord, that you would use that gospel to remind them that there is only one way of salvation, and that is through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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And I pray that you would, by your mercy, open hearts to believe, and for the believers today, that they would be encouraged, having studied your word.
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And now, Lord, as we move our attention to the reminder of the finished work of Christ, which is in the bread and in the cup,
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I pray, O God, that we would be, in this moment, encouraged that there is one way, only one way, but it is the greatest of all ways.
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It is the way you have provided, and that way is through your Son, Jesus Christ. Let us grow in our faith as we participate in that which you have given to point us to Christ, and it's in his name we pray.