2 Corinthians 11:1-15 (For God and Gospel, Jeff Kliewer)

False Apostles and a Different Gospel

Amen. I would like to begin this sermon this morning by introducing you to some of those whom Paul would have had in view in 2 Corinthians 11. Because it is a spiritual war, but sometimes in the spiritual war, the enemy disguises himself working through a human person, a deceitful worker, a false apostle, and brings a false doctrine to the church, preaching a different Jesus, and a different spirit, and a different gospel than the one that was entrusted to the church.

And that's the subject this morning. So begin with our first false apostle, a man who's living today whose name is Russell M. Nelson. He lives in Utah, and he is the leader, the apostle, the so-called prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons.

Fifteen million people look to him as their apostle and their leader. He denies the Trinity and says that it is supposed that God was God from all eternity. Believing what Joseph Smith taught, he says that he will take away that veil and remove that misunderstanding, that God, Elohim, is actually only an exalted man.

And prior to Elohim, there was a father, a heavenly father before him, and before him, there was another heavenly father. So there's an infinite regression of gods, and you, Mormon, can become a god as well if you'll do the Mormon temple rituals and follow the teachings of Joseph Smith.

So says Russell M. Nelson, a false apostle. Next, I'll introduce you to Robert Saranko, the leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses. This man does not believe as the Mormons do, but rather he believes that Jesus is a created God.

Now notice, that's an oxymoron. A created God in the Spirit or in the likeness or in fact being Michael the archangel of the Old Testament. That God at some point created Jesus, and now we come to God through Jesus, but the one true God is the creator, and Jesus is not God.

According to Robert Saranko, the false apostle. Third, I'll introduce you to Nason Joaquin Garcia. This man is the leader of a church called La Luz Mundo, the Light of the World. It's based out of Guadalajara, Mexico, and like the Jehovah's Witnesses, has about 5 million followers.

Absolutely rejects the Trinity. In fact, hates the doctrine of the Trinity. The founder, which was the great grandfather of this man, or maybe the grandfather, he's third generation, began this church in Mexico and it spread not just throughout Mexico, but all through Latin America and now in many parts of this country.

In fact, if you'll look at the next slide, in Phoenix they have this church building and one similar to it in Texas. So no small thing here in America, but just a couple months ago, next slide, we see that Joaquin Garcia was arrested for predatory behavior towards children, and now he's arrested and held in a jail in California, and who knows what will become of that anti-Trinitarian cult.

But there's others like him. If you look at Eduardo Manalo, he's operating out of the Philippines where another five or more million people follow the teachings. This church is called Iglesia Ni Cristo, Church of Christ, and it's prominent in the Philippines, but it's here in America.

In fact, I've seen that church there in Philadelphia. One of our own members was talked to by an Iglesia Ni Cristo false teacher and tried to be recruited. Of course, he had the strength in the gospel because we're more than conquerors to refute that lie, but this is another of the non-Trinitarian cults.

Well, at least that's way off in the Philippines. Surely there's nothing like that near us, except that Gino Jennings is right around the corner. He has something like 200 congregations that follow him and hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and Facebook and whatnot.

He denies the trinity, hates the doctrine of the trinity. He's a oneness Pentecostal. He does say that you need to speak in tongues in order to demonstrate that you're genuinely saved. Gino Jennings and I potentially are having a debate on December 28th, so we'll see if that comes to fruition.

I told him that we would have to debate according to ordinary rules of debate where each person is allowed to speak because in previous debates he's had people physically carried off the stage and just became a shouting match, so I'm not going to do that if that's the case, but if he'll agree to the terms of debate and operate in a civil way, we will debate the trinity, which he denies.

And then next, even closer to home, the Christadelphians deny the trinity right here in Morristown in their ecclesia. Yeah, all of these are deniers of the trinity. They deny God the Son having existed from all eternity with the Father and with the Spirit.

In some form of Unitarianism, they are monotheists, but they deny the distinct personhood and deity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Next, you'll recognize him, Pope Francis. He does not deny the trinity, and Catholics do not deny the trinity, so if they're believing the gospel, even though they're in Catholicism, it's possible that they're saved.

Not all Roman Catholics are unsaved. Some are saved, but not because of the Roman Catholic doctrine that they are taught, in spite of the Roman Catholic doctrine that they are taught. Pope Francis is a false apostle and a deceitful workman, disguising himself as an apostle of Christ, claiming to be in the train of succession from Peter, and yet teaching that one must do penance to pay for one's own sins.

If you commit a mortal or venial sin, a priest will prescribe what work you have to do in order to pay that debt off, whether it's saying a certain number of Hail Marys or Our Fathers, there is work that must be done to cleanse the soul.

They teach purgatory, where you earn by suffering after this life a work that in truth was finished and paid for at Calvary, because Jesus said after, as he was dying on the cross, and just before giving up the ghost, he said what?

It is finished, the finished work of Christ, and so when the priest or the pope offers indulgences and ways to be cleansed by giving or taking some pilgrimage into your local church, he's offering a false hope that's built on works and not upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Deceitful workmen. In some cases, they deny the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other cases, they bring a different gospel. We'll see that language today in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 4. Let's go there now.

Divine Jealousy for the Bride of Christ

The main idea is that jealousy that professing Christians would worship the one true triune God and to believe the one true gospel, that jealousy of this nature is divine and sacrificial and confrontational.

Now the culture in which we live disagrees. Not that they don't disagree with the false teachers, they're fine with disagreeing, but they don't want disagreement to be confrontational. In other words, a person is welcome to hold their own opinions, but no one is ever to speak against the opinion of another.

It's called postmodernism. It's the culture, it's the whole milieu in which we live and move and have our being in this world. That is the ethic of morality, that you don't impose your view on someone else or put down anybody else's view, but that's not the ethic of the apostle.

I had a strange dream last night. In my dream, there was a strange man who began to flirt with a woman. And this man was attracted to her, but in the dream, I came up and told him, she's married. And he was upset by that, but didn't stop.

He began to plead how attracted he was to this woman, at which I responded, but she's married. And then he had, it was a strange dream, I said, he had these big brown eyes and they welled up with tears and began to trickle down his face.

And he said, but she's so beautiful, I must have her. And I said, but she's married. And in this dream, this battle was just heating up until I just woke up and thought, what on earth was that about? And I think I was thinking about this text, because it says in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 1, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.

Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband. That husband is Christ. The church is the bride of Christ. And the one husband gets to determine who he is and disclose himself for who he is.

And if someone comes along, another husband, trying to attract the bride of Christ and steal her away, the right and appropriate and godly response to such a thing is not passivity. It's not let your truth be your truth and let my truth be my truth.

The right and godly response, according to the apostle, is jealousy. Divine jealousy, according to our text today. Let's read it. 2 Corinthians 11, 1 to 6, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.

Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles, 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.

The apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, has gone out for the sake of the name, preaching Christ and betrothed the church to one husband, to Christ himself, the true God. Jealousy is about being for that husband.

It's not about being against someone, and this is the point that's misunderstood. It's not, first of all, about being against a false prophet. The reason we're to feel a divine jealousy, a holy zeal, a fire in our hearts, to fight for the church, to remain faithful to the groom.

The reason we are to do that is because we so much love the groom. We care about him and his glory, and so when another comes claiming the name of the Christ, claiming to be Christian, notice this is not about those who claim to Buddha.

This is about those who claim to follow Christ. We saw that last week, claiming to belong to Christ, and yet they're false prophets and deceitful workmen. They're apostles sent, not from God, but from that deceptive angel who fell from grace.

In verse three, we're told, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve, who is the serpent, Satan, coming in the form of a snake in the garden of Eden, deceiving Eve in the garden, leading her astray.

Your thoughts could be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. We learn from Ezekiel chapter 28 that Satan was once a guardian angel, a powerful worshiping angel, and walked among the fiery stones in heaven, but he was kicked out from there and fell to the garden of Eden, and then with the fury, came to Eve to deceive her to reject the God who made them all.

This spirit is behind any lie that perverts the gospel of Christ, and it's not acceptable. Notice in verse four, if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, the degradation of Jesus from who he is to some lesser being or person, to some lesser thing, this is the essence of false religion.

False teachings, false religions that come in the name of Christ, they will do one of two things. One, they will degrade Jesus, or two, they will add works to the gospel. They will bring Jesus down from his exalted place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to some lesser thing, maybe an exalted man, as the Mormons say, or maybe a created angel, as Jehovah's Witnesses say.

In each case, Jesus is degraded to something less, or works are added to the gospel. In verse four, it says, if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted. So what then is this true teaching of the Trinity?

What is the Trinity, and why is it so important? The Trinity is the doctrine that comes from the Bible, not from some council of Nicaea, or Constantinople, or a later declaration by the church. The later councils were merely fighting off liars who were bringing some aberrant teaching, but the true doctrine is found in Scripture, and actually revealed between the Testaments in the incarnation of the Son of God, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

So follow this, in the Old Testament, God is revealed as one God, the Shema of Israel, Deuteronomy 6 -4, there is only one God, the Lord is one. In Mark 12 -29, Jesus affirms that this is the most important thing for you to understand, that the Lord is one.

There is only one God, that is a biblical statement, and that's the first pillar on which the Trinity stands. The second is that there are three who are God, three persons. So there's a distinguishing now between the one being or essence of God, and the persons within, within the one being who is God, there are three equally divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Is that the teachings of men, or the teachings of God? Jesus in John 8 -58 says, before Abraham was born, I am. He claims to be the I am, Yahweh, claiming to be God. In Acts chapter 5, when Ananias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Spirit, they're told, you have not lied to men, you have lied to God.

The Holy Spirit is God, the Father, no one questions that the Father is God, but the revelation between the Testaments is that this person who has come in the flesh is more than a man. He is God-man, the hypostatic union of two natures in one person.

God the Son existed from all eternity past, but in a moment of time at the virgin birth, and in the conception of the Son, in the Holy Spirit, spiritual conception without the seed of a man, Jesus put on human flesh and was born to the Virgin Mary.

Nothing was taken away from Him in that, but humanity was added and joined together so that He is fully God and fully man. This is the doctrine that's so essential for us to understand. God has come in the flesh, and why is this so important?

What do we lose if we do not believe that God has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? We lose the very nature of God Himself. In order for God to be love, we're told in 1 John, God is love, right?

In order for God to be love, He must exist in a plurality of persons, and so in the very first chapter of the Bible, we're told, let us make man in our image. The plurality of us cannot refer to angels because angels are not the creators of men.

Let us refers from Father to Son to Spirit, the unity of the Trinity, distinct persons existing before the creation of the world. Let us make man in our image. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always existed, and so before there was time, God was love.

The Father loved the Son, the Son loved the Spirit, the Spirit loved the Father and the Son, and there was perfect love in the unity of the Trinity, and so God needed nothing. He did not need to create a world in order to be love, so denying the eternal existence of the Son is to deny that God is love.

It would make God dependent on creation in order to be love, but there's something even closer and less abstract, less theological. The very nature of the atonement requires that God Himself come and pay the penalty of sin.

It's not as if God could just put His Spirit on a man like someone would put on a shirt and then tear up that shirt and thus satisfy the penalty of sin. In order for God to pay for sin, He had to become a man, and therefore in the dying, the breaking of the flesh of Jesus Christ on the cross, Jesus must be one person with two natures.

If He doesn't have a divine nature, His blood is of no more value than the blood of an animal or a created thing like humans. What makes the blood of Jesus so infinitely valuable enough to cover my sin and your sin and the sins of the whole world if they would believe?

What makes that blood so valuable is that it's the value of God. His divine being is necessary in His crucifixion to pay for sinners like us, but He must be joined to humanity. He didn't become an angel to die for angels.

Hebrews tells us He became a man to die for men, and those two things must be united in one person and in the dying of that one person, the wrath of God is satisfied. So if we do not have a Trinity, we do not have salvation.

Propitiation cannot be made. The wrath of the Father cannot be turned away unless an adequate substitute is put in our place, and that substitute is Jesus Christ, the righteous. So important. All of theology.

Guys, theology matters. Did you know that? Remember that phrase? I got it from James White. He actually says that Albert Moeller took it from him, but I don't know who said it first. Theology matters.

Theology matters. Write that down. Because if we don't have the right theology, study of God, understanding of God, knowledge of God, as Paul talks about here in verse 6, if we don't have the right knowledge, we're still in our sins.

We're not saved by doctrine. We're saved by Christ, but we must have our devotion, our pure, simple, true devotion directed to the one true Christ and not to a substitute, a false suitor, a false husband.

He discloses who He is, and we must come to Him that way. So in verse 5, indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. Don't you love how they regard themselves as a step beyond Paul?

Well, you know, Paul brought you the gospel, but the super apostles are here now, and they're much better speakers, and they have much better stage presence, and their physical bodies are much better specimens.

He says, you know, that might be verse 6, but even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way, we have made this plain to you in all things.

To undermine the sufficiency of grace must not be tolerated. See, in verse 4, it says, if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, that means if you add something to salvation and try to earn salvation by penances, or Mormon temple rites, or knocking on a certain number of doors to be part of the Jehovah's Witness 144 ,000, or if you add speaking in tongues in a certain mode of baptism at somebody's hands, you add any of these works to salvation.

Grace is no longer grace. Grace is a divine work of the Holy Spirit, which imparts faith to the believer. We connect to that grace through faith, and this is what justifies. We are justified by faith, not by works.

So anyone who comes and undermines that teaching has what the Bible here calls a different gospel. A different gospel, verse 4. So we should be jealous for the true gospel. There are certain things we should not be jealous about, and those are the things that we tend to be the most jealous about.

The kind of car that we drive, or the house, or the family. So many things make people jealous, but so few are jealous for the things that we should be jealous for, and that is God, His nature, His attributes, and His gospel.

The way to be saved. Because the saddest thing that we're talking about this morning is the fact that those 15 million people in Utah, and surrounding parts of Idaho, and some other parts of the country, and all those Filipinos, and in Guadalajara, Mexico, following these cult leaders are being deceived and led to their own eternal destruction, like sheep to the slaughter.

And so jealousy for the true God is divine jealousy, we're told in verse 2. It's a divine jealousy. It's a good and godly zeal. My zeal consumes me, says the Lord. He's zealous for the things that matters, for His Father's glory.

Verse 7 through 10 through 11 speaks to the sacrificial nature of this jealousy. The person who would, like our friend Eric Johnson, who came here for an apologetics conference, would lay his life down to go and minister in Utah, and be hated as if he's the hater for telling them that Mormonism is a false gospel.

He's a Mormon basher, according to the world, but in truth he is going in love and laying down his life preaching the gospel to Mormons. Jealousy, divine jealousy, is sacrificial to be regarded as a fool, but to be wise in God's eyes.

To be regarded as hateful, but to be loving. It's this opposite thing that the world does, turning everything on its head. Paul talks about it a lot in chapter 6. He talks about that, and again and again he sees that that dichotomy between how you will be regarded and how you truly are.

It's sacrificial. So Paul, knowing that these false apostles were opposing him, he gives them no ground to undermine his gospel. In verse 7 to 11 he refuses to take money from them. He says, "...or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted?

Because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge. I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 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.

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.". And why? Because I do not love you?

God knows I do. You see, the matter of giving and receiving, to give to a church and to support the ministry, that is good and it's God's standard. But it's for those who agree. You give and support a ministry that you agree with and so we stand and rise together as a church, even in our finances.

It's a privilege and an honor to do that. Paul talks about that way. Macedonia is where Philippi was. The first city he reached as he came in to Europe, Philippians 4, 15 through 19, refers to the gifts that the Philippians sent as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing.

It was a privilege and a sacrifice and it was pleasing to give it. But Paul did not take from the Corinthians in order to undermine the claims of the false apostles. So he was fighting. He was jealous for their devotion and that's why he refused to take money so he wouldn't be accused of just trying to take money and having the wrong motive, as he called earlier in, I think it was chapter 4, being a peddler of the gospel.

He's not a peddler of the gospel. He gives those who agree in the gospel the privilege of supporting him in that work. Now verse 12 through 15. Finally, and this is what the culture hates, jealousy for God and his gospel is confrontational.

This is probably the most confrontational section of Paul's epistle here, but he's been beating around the bush in some ways, steering the Corinthians back to devotion to the true God and the true gospel.

But here he takes aim and exposes his opponents, not just as well-meaning and well-intentioned friends, who just see it a little different than him because we all kind of see things through our own lens.

No, there comes a time where you confront error, especially when it's over God and gospel. Look at verse 12 and following. And what 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.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. There he said it. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

Their end will correspond to their deeds. Paul is willing to fight like Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris is known as a great fighter and they say of Chuck Norris, when Chuck Norris attends a feminist rally, he comes back with his shirt ironed and a sandwich.

Chuck Norris goes to war. Listen, the devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns, isn't that right? He doesn't come masquerading as the devil, dressed up so everybody would notice. But someone once said he comes as everything you ever wished for.

That's a humbling thought. When he presents himself, he presents himself as everything you ever wished for. And all of us need to be aware of that warning. He comes as an angel of light with a smile on his face and wearing a suit and talking about good things and being known for doing good things in the community.

All of those seven cults that we talked about are known for good works and in fact sometimes excel in good works and community events and helping people. But it's an angel of light. It's a disguise to hide what they truly are, which are deceitful workmen and false apostles.

You know, the common theme that I see in many of these movements is what's called the restorationist movement. The idea is that when John the Apostle died, the true church somehow ceased to exist and the true preaching of the gospel was nowhere to be found.

Even though Jesus himself said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The teaching of restorationists is that somehow at some point early in church history, everything was lost and then along comes some great restorationist preacher who's rediscovered what the Bible originally meant.

And of course, it's always them who are the prophet and the apostle and the general overseer and the restorer of things that were lost. Restorationist movements come in and notice in our text in verse 12, in their boasted mission, they want to say they work on the same terms as we do.

They claim to be an apostle like Paul and everybody else has lost it. But here they come, here comes Joseph Smith, restoring what the churches have lost. And he's discovered these golden plates buried under the ground that tell us what we've been missing all along.

These restorationist movements have the same lie in common. They exalt a man to bring forth something that they claim was lost, but was never lost in the first place because we have always had and the church will always have sola scriptura, the word of God.

It's never taken from the church. It's always here for us to know. And the scriptures clearly proclaim the true God and the true gospel. Matthew 10 16 says, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. We must be wise, brothers and sisters, as serpents, very aware, very shrewd in our dealings with the enemy, and yet innocent, doing no harm, but bringing nothing but the truth of God's word, the truth.

Courage, Compassion, and Zeal in Gospel Witness

So in closing, what's the application of this? We have to slough off our natural tendency to be passive in the face of the lies of the enemy. When someone professes Christ, yet denies the trinity, or adds works to the gospel, we need to speak.

Put yourself in the position, guys, of a husband. How would you like one of these false teachers to come and begin to flirt with your wife? And when you tell him to back off, he begins to plead how attracted he is to her, and begs you for her, and fights you for her.

Let that jealousy that's in your heart to defend your wife, or how you would defend your own mother, or your daughter. Men, let that jealousy rise up in you and defend Christ the way you would defend the woman that you love.

Because the bride of Christ is the church, and we must fight liars and deceitful workmen, false apostles who masquerade as angels of light. Be jealous for the glory of God and for the souls of men. Be concerned for those being led astray, especially those who walk into a church on Sunday mornings and confess their sins to a priest.

And they think because he stands before an altar, although there is no other altar but the cross of Christ where he was sacrificed once and for all, they stand claiming to be an alter Christos, another Christ, and make propitiation on the altar as if Christ could be sacrificed again and again, and offer that piece of bread or dip of a cup.

And these people walk out from the midst of this assembly believing that on account of their work, they've done their religious duty, they've taken the mass. On account of this, they're born again, they're justified, they're maintaining their justification.

Deceitful workmen, workers of iniquity, masquerading. Have compassion for the souls of men. And women who are being led astray by teachings that directly contradict sola scriptura, the scripture alone.

Have compassion enough to tell them and not in a mean-spirited way, because your goal is to lead them the truth. Bring them the true teaching of God's Word. The true teaching that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

That He died on a cross to make propitiation for sins, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life. That there's nothing that you can do, no work that you can bring, but that God justifies the ungodly on the basis of faith and faith alone.

And that we nullify grace if we add works to that. Have compassion on the Roman Catholics and the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Iglesia Ni Cristo, Luz de Mundo, whatever teaching or manner of teaching is out there that contradicts the Word of God.

Have enough compassion on the souls of men to tell them the truth. And that's the point of our text today. Paul is very bold in doing it. He doesn't shy away. In fact, he's willing to fight. He's willing to fight for the truth.

Let's close in prayer and worship team. Come on up. God, I pray that you would fill our hearts with zeal. My zeal consumes me because my foes forget your commands. I pray Lord that you would give us a godly jealousy, not a selfish jealousy that's of this world, but a godly jealousy that comes from the Spirit of the living God, which can be identified as evangelistic zeal.

Give us a heart for the lost and recognize that though men believe that they are satisfied and happy in their false religion, the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. Give us zeal for God in the gospel.

Let us run under the banner of God and gospel, preaching the true triune God and the gospel of grace. Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.

God be glorified in your church. And give us more courage, Lord. Give us more courage to speak boldly from your word. Give us more love to speak compassionately and carefully, innocently, like doves. Send us out for the sake of the name, the name of Jesus.

His name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and worship.