What Pastors Worry About

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If you have your Bibles, I invite you to take them out and open them to 2 Corinthians 11.
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Today we're going to be focusing our attention on verses 1 -4. A common belief among some
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Christians is that if you are a person of faith, true faith, genuine faith, then you should never worry or fear.
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Some will even say faith is the absence of fear, but that's not always true.
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Now we should not be ruled by fear or worry, but that does not mean that a person who has faith will never have those thoughts and emotions.
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Paul actually shows us this throughout 2 Corinthians. From the beginning, he has said that he is concerned.
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He's even used the idea of being anxious, that his spirit was not at rest.
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If you remember in the second chapter when he was talking about the fact that when he was at Troas, he had an opportunity to preach the gospel, but his spirit was not at rest because Titus had not returned.
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He had not received the word from the Corinthians. He had not received the response to his severe letter.
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And he was concerned for them. He was concerned for their souls. He was concerned for them.
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And this is Paul. This is a man who believed in the sovereignty of God.
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This is a man who believed in God's preserving power. This is a man who believed in providence.
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And yet, there were times when he clearly says he had a restless heart.
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I've entitled today's message, What Pastors Worry About. And the reason why
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I entitled the message this is because in this section, and we're only going to look at four verses, in this section,
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Paul actually says he is afraid. He says he is experiencing phobomai, which is the word that comes from the root phobos, which is where we get our word phobia, or to be afraid.
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And I believe that the fear that Paul is experiencing in this passage is a fear that every legitimate minister of the gospel fears from one time or another.
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And it is a fear that the people who are under his charge would be seduced and led away into false teaching.
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So let's stand together and read this text and hear what the apostle has to say to us today.
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Beginning in verse 1, Paul writes, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.
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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.
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But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts too will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
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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.
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Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. I pray,
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Lord, this morning as this is the hour for the message,
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I pray, Lord, that this would be the message for the hour, Lord, that the very words that are going to be preached today would be your words,
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Lord, that they would be true to your scripture, that the thoughts and intents of the heart of the apostle
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Paul would be the thoughts and intents of my heart as I preach this text, that the same spirit that inspired
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Paul, Lord, would fill me and use me in the preaching of your word and Lord, that you would keep me from error.
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I pray it every week, Lord, because I believe it. I believe I could preach something wrong and I don't want to.
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I don't want to see the ministry be seduced into error.
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So many have, Father, I pray your mercy be upon us as we study.
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I pray for those who hear for the believer, God, that today they would be reminded.
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Of the danger. Of the false teachers who come. With their smooth words and their flattering voices,
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I pray. That we would not. Give them even an ear and Lord, for the unbeliever in this room.
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That they would hear the gospel today. That there is only one
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Jesus, that there is only one Holy Spirit and Lord, there is only one gospel and to believe on on the wrong
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Jesus or to believe through the wrong spirit or to believe in the wrong gospel. Is damnation, so Lord, be with us today as we recognize the exclusivity of the message of the gospel and as we consider the power of Paul's words,
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Lord, teach us spirit. Lord, teach us by your spirit. In Jesus name.
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Amen. Paul's second letter to the
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Corinthians. Well, the second letter in our Bible, it's not the second one that he wrote.
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We we think there was at least three, possibly four letters that he wrote to the Corinthians.
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We only have two which are part of our canon. And this letter is his final letter to them before his final visit.
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And he's speaking to a church that he himself. Planted. That he saw grow and that he has now had to watch.
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As false teachers have made their way into the church. Have corrupted the minds of the people.
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Have taught a false Jesus, a false spirit, a false gospel, which has been believed.
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And have called into question, not only Paul's message, but also the integrity of the apostle by saying that because of his suffering, because of all the things that he has had to endure, because he did not make it to Corinth when he said that he would, that he was an untrustworthy man, an ungodly man, that he was not a man who the church should be submitted to, but rather the church should be submitted to them.
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Next week, as we move into verse five and on through the rest of the chapter, we're going to see that Paul identifies these men as super apostles.
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And as I've said for the last several weeks, the phrase super apostle is not a compliment.
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But rather, it is Paul's way of pointing out that these men have raised themselves up in opposition to the truth.
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These men have raised themselves up in opposition to Paul himself by proclaiming themselves to be greater than they are.
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As we noted in last week's message, the way that they promoted their own greatness is they would compare themselves one to another.
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And they would build up their esteem and their reputation based upon their comparison one to another.
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These men were probably great orators. They were probably interesting and entertaining to listen to.
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They probably had words that sounded wise. And yet they were false teachers.
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Paul is going to clearly say in our next section that they are, in fact, agents of the devil himself.
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He says the devil is like an angel of light. He pretends to be an angel of light and his ministers pretend to be ministers of righteousness.
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So this is the context that this letter comes in. Paul has planted a church that has gone astray and he is concerned for them.
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He is, as it were, if I could use this phrase, worried about them because he does not want to see them go down the road of apostasy.
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Which is to turn from Christ and from the truth. Second Corinthians can be broken into three parts.
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I've talked about this by way of reminder, it can be broken into three parts. The first seven chapters is
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Paul's defense of his ministry. He defends the ministry of reconciliation, being a minister of the new covenant.
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And we have some of the most thoughtful and deep theology in all of the New Testament found in just those seven chapters.
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In chapters eight and nine, he describes an offering which the Corinthians had promised to the church in Jerusalem, which was suffering at that time through famine and persecution.
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And he is calling them to remember the offering that they were to give. And we have some of the greatest teaching on giving in chapters eight and nine.
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But then in chapters 10 to 13, Paul goes on the offensive. In fact, some even believe,
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I do not, but some scholars believe that chapters 10 to 13 is an entirely different letter.
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Some even consider that it might even be the severe letter that Paul mentions in chapter two and somehow later in time was stitched together.
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And this is how we find it. I don't agree with that, but I understand how they can come to that conclusion because it is severe.
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His words do not mince. His words are solid and hard and strong.
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So while I don't agree because there's no historical or any type of evidence from the manuscripts or anything that this letter was ever separated or in parts that would lead me to believe that's not the case and there is an internal logic that follows from the beginning to the end.
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So that's the internal and external evidence why I would disagree with that. I do understand how people arrive in that conclusion.
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Because this is the harsh part of the letter, not harsh in the sense of a bully, because as I said last week, there is no place for bullies.
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In God's pulpit, there's no place for anyone who abuses the sheep of God, but it is at times that the man of God must take up the sword and attack the enemies of his people.
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I don't know how many of you ever seen the movie The Patriot, one of my favorite patriotic movies, and it talks about the
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Revolutionary War, and it's a it's a fictional account from the Revolutionary War. But there's a point in which the pastor, they've called on men to serve in the militia and all these men are coming to mount their horses and the pastor comes out.
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He's still got his pastoral neck, whatever they call it, the tie that he wore. And as he walked out, he still had his pastor's hat on or his pastor's wig on.
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Thank goodness that's over. But as he walks out to his horse, they said, Reverend, and he turned around and he said sometimes he says the pastor has to care for the sheep, but sometimes he has to destroy the wolves.
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He takes off his wig and he puts on his hat and he picks up his rifle and he goes to war. I think it's a wonderful reminder that there are there's two voices.
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The pastor, I think it was Spurgeon who said the pastor should have two voices, one for calling the sheep and one for sending away the wolves.
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And so Paul is sending away the wolves. Paul is speaking with that voice that is strong and powerful.
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And one thing that is so clear in chapters 10 to 13 is that Paul had a particular relationship with the church at Corinth.
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He says they are in his area of influence. We talked about that last week.
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We talked about the fact that it's like a lane in a race where the runner gets his lane and then the other runner has his lane.
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Paul says you're in my lane, you're in my sphere of influence. I planted you as a church.
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I have a relationship with you that is God produced.
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God produced this relationship. God put me in a special position with you and he desired to protect this church and not see it destroyed.
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Certainly, Paul wouldn't want to see any church destroyed, but it's specific to him that this particular church be protected because this church was in his lane.
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And so we come into chapter 11 and I decided only to do four verses because chapter 11, 32 verses long.
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It's one of the longer chapters in the whole book and I knew we wouldn't get through a lot of it, but I wanted to at least help you to understand the heart of Paul in this.
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And I'm focusing mainly today on verse four because in verse four,
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Paul is going to outline the three places where people are most likely to be led astray.
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The three places people are most likely to be led astray, and I'll go ahead and give it to you, is a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel.
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And you know what he says? You tolerate it. It's translated differently in the ESV. It says you put up with it readily enough.
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The NAS says something like you see it beautifully. I think it's the word. Mike's going to check for me real quick.
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But it's basically you tolerate this. You tolerate the different Jesus.
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You tolerate the different spirit. You tolerate the different gospel. What does it say in the
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King James, Mike? Yeah, you bear with them. What does yours say? It is different.
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Yeah, you basically see it's OK. It's fine with you. It's OK with you. It's not
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OK. But they were tolerating it.
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Let me tell you something, and I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. I'll just go ahead and say it. The greatest virtue of secularism, according to modern teaching, is the virtue of tolerance.
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And they will say, unless you're willing to tolerate anything, foolishness, degrading, sexual perversion, unless you're willing to tolerate that, you're wrong.
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You're a bigot. But might I say, this church, there are things we ought not tolerate.
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There are things we must not tolerate. Far be it from celebrating.
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We shouldn't tolerate it. And Paul says that's the problem.
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They are tolerating a different Jesus, a different spirit and a different gospel. But before we get there,
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I do want to walk through verses one to three, because that sets the point of the
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Apostle Paul on edge. It sets it up for us so that verse four can cut us.
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Verse one, he says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. Some have this in the imperative, do bear with me.
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Some translate it in the indicative, you are bearing with me. It really matters very little how you translate it, because ultimately what
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Paul is saying here is for the next portion of this letter, I'm going to be speaking in a way that may sound foolish, but I need you to stay with me.
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And the foolishness, actually, he uses the word foolish in the next chapter or so. He uses the word foolishness eight times.
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He uses the word bear with me five times. So this becomes sort of a theme in this next section, because what he's going to do is he's going to defend his ministry by demonstrating all of the things that he has gone through for the ministry.
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He's going to talk about his pedigree. He's going to talk about his history. He's going to talk about who he is. And in a sense, this is something that he's saying, listen,
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I shouldn't even have to do this. You know who I am. I planted this church.
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You know who I am. I taught you. I preached to you. I built you up. You know who I am.
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But for a moment, I'm going to engage in a little foolishness. If these guys want to compare resumes, well, let's do it.
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And you'll see that the things that these men are boasting about are actually foolishness.
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So bear with me as I engage with you in a little foolishness.
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I like what John Gill says in this section. He says the false apostles boasted so much of their gifts, abilities and usefulness that the apostle found himself under a necessity of saying some things in his own defense for the honor of God and the good of his church, which otherwise his modesty would have not permitted him and which he saw would be accounted and censored as folly in him by others.
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And therefore he entreats their patience a little while and that they would suffer him to say a few things in vindication of his character and not be offended, though it would be in commendation of himself, which were he not forced to would look vain and foolish.
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So Paul is saying what I'm about to say may seem like foolishness. Bear with me. It's going to make sense.
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And then we get to verse two. Verse two, he says, For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
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Now. Let me ask you this, why does
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Paul say he feels jealousy? Well.
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He's using this phrase in a way that is intended to drive home the power of his thoughts for the
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Corinthians. Because the picture that he's painting. Is the picture of a father with his daughter.
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That's the very illustration that he gives, this is the illustration when he says, I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
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Well, in that analogy that Paul is using, and it is an analogy and all analogies fall short eventually, but in the heart of this analogy that Paul's making, he's saying
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I am like your spiritual father. And I have in the past presented you to Christ like a father would present his daughter who he had kept pure for marriage.
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And so I am experiencing a divine jealousy over you because I see you in a relationship of a father to his daughter.
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And you might think, wow, that sounds really like a wild analogy for Paul to use.
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Doesn't Jesus say call no man father? Well, Paul's not saying call me father Paul.
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Paul's not trying to encourage them to bestow upon him some title that wasn't appropriate.
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But Paul is trying to help them to understand his emotional connection to them.
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And the illustration he uses here is very similar to the
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Old Testament illustration that God uses for Israel. Because what does
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God say of Israel? He says, I am jealous for a people who are called by my name.
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In the 1980s, when Oprah Winfrey was rising to a powerful level of influence in media and culture, she was known for saying things about the
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Christian faith that were often incorrect. But she was bold and she had a platform so people listened.
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And one of the things that she is known for having said was that growing up in church, she had a problem with the fact that God was called a jealous
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God. And you can look this up. Don't have to take my word for it. Go look up Oprah's issue with the jealous
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God and you will hear basically what she says is that she found that to be offensive, that God would be so petty as to be jealous.
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And so that led her down a road away from what the scriptures teach about God.
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So might I for a moment simply address this idea of jealousness and pettiness as if they are automatically connected?
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They are not. There are things where there are times where jealousy is an appropriate response.
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Particularly from God. Because God does not want us to go worship other gods.
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One, because his name is the only name that deserves to be worshipped. And two, in the worship of other gods, we bring about our own destruction.
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So therefore, the God of scripture says to the people of Israel, I am a jealous
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God. I am a God who accepts only that you worship me, not that you divide my worship with the other gods.
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Consider the first two commandments in the Decalogue. Have no other gods before me.
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Meaning, do not divide my worship with the worship of other gods.
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And then the very next commandment, which is sometimes confusing because it sounds like it's almost the same commandment.
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In fact, the Roman Catholics have combined it and separated nine and ten to where you end up coveting.
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Coveting gets divided into two. They still have ten, they just number them differently. But in the
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Protestant reading of the Ten Commandments, we understand that the second command is, do not make any graven image.
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Now, what's the difference between commandment number one and commandment number two? Well, commandment number one says, don't have any other gods.
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There's one God, not other gods, and you don't bring any other gods and worship them.
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You have one God. And the second commandment is, don't take an object and call it
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God. You remember what the people of Israel did when
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Moses went up on the mountain and they thought he was gone forever? And so they go to Aaron. What do we do?
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Aaron says, well, give me all the gold out of your ears and your noses and all these other things. And we're going to put them into the fire.
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And they molded a golden calf. And Moses comes down from the mountain.
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Oh, by the way, most exciting worship service in the Bible was that worship service, if you read it.
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People always talk about, oh, I want excitement in worship. Be careful what they ask for. Careful what you ask for, because they had excitement in worship.
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They're worshipping the wrong God, worshipping him in the wrong way. Moses comes down.
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And I love what the text says. We put the gold in the fire and this cow came out. No, that's not how it happened.
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You molded this cow and you said, this is the God who led us out of Egypt.
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Go back and read it. This is the God who led you out of Egypt. This cow that we just made is the
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God who led you out of Egypt. God does not want to share and will not share his glory with another
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God. And he will not tolerate his glory being given to an idol because he is jealous for his name.
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And if you don't understand that, I will say this. You don't understand who God is because he has said who he is.
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He is the God who made all things and he will not share his glory with another.
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So Paul in this text is hearkening back to this idea of divine jealousy.
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But he is using it in slightly a different way because he is saying to the Corinthians, I have a divine jealousy for you because I have betrothed you.
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And you remember betrothal was the pre -marriage contract that was made. That before the marriage, a father would enter into a contract with a man for the daughter's hand in marriage.
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And there would be a period where the man had to provide for her all the things that were necessary for a wedding.
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And during that time, they were not yet wed, but they were contractually obligated together.
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Remember this from Mary and Joseph where Joseph thought Mary had cheated. And so he said, I have to divorce her.
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Well, why do we have to divorce her? They weren't married yet. Well, because they were betrothed and betrothal would require a divorce.
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So this picture is the picture Paul is using. I betrothed you. I gave your hand to Christ, as it were, like a father gives his hand of the daughter to a man.
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I have a divine jealousy for you because I do not want you who reached your hand out and took the hand of Christ to now take your other hand and grab the hand of an idol.
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I do not want your mind captured to Christ. Remember what he said just a chapter ago.
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He says, I want to see your thoughts captured to Christ. Not captured to the false teachers. So Paul is not being petty.
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Paul is not being sinfully jealous, as there is sinful jealousy, and we see it all the time.
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But Paul has a concern for their souls, just like we should have for one another.
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You know what the book of Hebrews says about the elders, says they keep watch over your soul.
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And that's why I said, that's why I entitled the sermon, What Pastors Worry About.
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We worry about your soul. We do. There's so much more
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I could say about this. But I do want to move to verse three, because he says in verse three, But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived
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Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
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This is what he's afraid of. This is what he's afraid of.
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And just like he used the picture of divine jealousy in verse two, now he's using an illustration from the
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Old Testament all the way back to the beginning, where Eve was deceived by the serpent.
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And by the way, this is a complete aside, but important to mention. This reminds us too of the truthfulness of that story.
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Because Paul is not drawing from mythology, he's drawing from history. And he's talking about Eve who lived in space and time.
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The story of Adam and Eve is not a myth. The story of Adam and Eve is not something that was constructed according to ancient
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Near Eastern custom, where Moses could figure out a way to help the Israelites understand how the world was created.
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No, it is history from God through the Holy Spirit to Moses, which he wrote down under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit to give us an account of what happened. I don't know how long it's been since you read
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Genesis 1, 2, and 3. But we should keep it in our mind.
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Because when we go back, we're reminded of how easily someone can be led astray. Eve was deceived by the serpent.
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Three words, I think the King James has. Three words, half
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God said, half God said.
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That's the words the serpent used to bring Eve into destruction and threw her,
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Adam, into destruction. Three tiny words, half God said.
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The easiest way that the false teachers lead people astray is by calling into question the integrity of God's word.
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Half God truly said. Did God really say?
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Nowadays, it's more like you don't really understand it. You don't read the original language.
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You didn't go to university, so you don't know about ancient Near Eastern history. You really don't know what it means.
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That's the way it comes today. Half God said, well, he did, but you don't know what it means.
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You don't get it. Calling into question the word of God.
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Or even more, calling into question how we understand the word of God. And this is what was happening to the
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Corinthians. The Corinthians were being led astray by these super apostles.
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These men were calling into question what Paul had said. They were calling into question the gospel.
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They were calling into question who Christ was, who the spirit was. This is what these men were doing. And so Paul says,
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I am afraid that just like Eve was led away by the serpent, you are going to be led away by these serpentine characters.
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Have you never seen it happen? It is heartbreaking. I've seen people seduced by cults.
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I've seen people let out of this church by false teaching. It hasn't happened often, but it has happened enough to be a memory in my in my gut.
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That's not a memory you keep in your head. That's a memory you keep in your gut. Because when you think about it, you want to throw up.
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And you see somebody led away into false teaching. And chase it like a dog chases its vomit.
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So we get to verse four. Paul has painted a graphic picture. I'm like a father giving my daughter and now comes the rapist.
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That's the picture. I'm a father with a daughter and in comes the one who wants to ravish her, destroy her virtue, take away her virginity for the sake of his own pleasure.
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And the robbery of her soul. You think
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Paul's serious? I think he's deadly serious. And now for the convicting words of Paul.
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For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than we proclaim. 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.
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You tolerate it. You bear with it. You don't rebuke it. You don't run from it.
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You don't flee from it. You take it in. You bear this beautifully.
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You might well bear with him. All these different ways of saying it. I like the New Living translation. I know it's a paraphrase and it's not a great one to study, but sometimes it just says it plain out.
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And it says it like this. You happily put up with what anyone tells you. You happily put up with what anyone tells you.
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Even if they preach a different Jesus. Remember a few years ago there was a guy came here.
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Visited from another church. And he told the story of how his daughter was in a class at the church he was attending.
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And the person in the class was teaching against the Trinity. And by the way, if you got a different millennial position, we'll tolerate that.
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It's OK. I think we're all kind of figuring it out. If you got a different position on even the spiritual gifts, we'll figure it out.
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There's things we can differ on that, right? But you come in here wanting to tell me
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Jesus is not God in the flesh. Yeah, you're going to ship, shape up or ship out.
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You're not going to teach here. So that doesn't sound very tolerant.
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Good. And that was the point.
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The guy came to me, says they're letting this guy teach. I went to the pastor. The pastor said, oh, we're not going to say anything.
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You're not going to say nothing. You got a dude in your Sunday school class teaching the
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Trinity isn't true. And you're not going to say anything. I don't want to upset him. Sorry, just everything in me just went.
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There's something to get upset about. That's it. The three areas people are most likely to be led astray.
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As I said before, this is it. The three areas people are most likely to be led astray. Different Jesus, different spirit, different gospel.
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Now, there are others we could make a list longer than this, but these are the three things Paul addresses.
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So apparently this was important to him because this is where the Corinthians were being led astray.
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And I I'll say this. Almost every cult, almost every aberrant teaching, almost every false religion will fall into one of these three categories.
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If not all of them, a different Jesus.
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Even in the first century, there were falsehoods being taught about Jesus. And they haven't really changed, even though I would say there are things that have been emphasized more or less now that are different then.
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Now, there's a lot of people who call into question the divinity of Christ. In the first century, it was more calling into question his humanity.
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The idea that God would take on flesh was anathema to many people. They did not want to accept that.
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This is why I believe John says, if anyone says that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, let him be a curse.
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If he doesn't say that, because Christ coming in the flesh was foundational and doctrinal.
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And if you didn't believe John 1 14 that says the word became flesh and dwelt among us, you weren't a Christian. And there are things that we can say that about.
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Again, back to the zero tolerance thing or no tolerance thing. There are times when we can say, if you don't believe something, you're not a
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Christian. People get so upset. People will say, oh, well, you can't discern someone else's heart.
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No, but if you tell me Jesus is not God in the flesh, you're not a Christian because that's what
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Christianity teaches. You might be something else. Call yourself whatever that is.
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And I love it when people will say, well, Islam, you know, they get a lot right about Jesus because they say
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Jesus is the Messiah. They do. They believe Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. They believe Jesus was born of a virgin.
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Right. So those things, they'll say, yay,
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Muslims get that part right. Yeah, but they deny he's the son of God and they deny he's
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God in the flesh. They say cursed is the one who says Allah has a son. Guess what?
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It's a different Jesus. The Isa of the Koran is not the Jesus of the Bible. When the
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Jehovah Witness comes to your door, like they used to for me, when the
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Jehovah Witness comes to your door. And they say, we want to talk to you about Jesus.
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They want to tell you about a Jesus who was created and they will say that.
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Jesus is a created God, little G. Created God.
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In their translation, the New World Translation, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was
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God. That is how your Bible reads. That is how the majority of Bibles read, because that is the proper way to translate that phrase.
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Kafei asein halagos and the word was God is the proper way to translate that. But they will say, no, they'll say the word was a
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God. They'll say Jesus was a God. And we say you don't use the indefinite article to describe
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God because there is one God. In three persons, but one God. The person who brings to you a false
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Jesus does not have a message that can save your soul. The person who brings to you a false
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Jesus does not have a message that can bring you life. But it will bring destruction to you and to your family.
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So as Paul was concerned that his people would not believe a false Jesus, I have the same concern for you.
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Mike has the same concern for you. Andy has the same concern for you, that you would not believe a false Jesus. Now, you would not tolerate such.
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Now, the second. Says a different spirit. Now, it seems obvious.
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That Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit, but we also have to consider that the word spirit is used different ways, like, for instance.
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In Romans chapter 8, when Paul is talking about falling back, he says, we do not want you to fall back into a spirit of slavery.
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Right? So he uses the word spirit there more as an attitude or a mood or condition rather than a person.
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So right away, I would say certainly Paul wants us to have a right understanding of who the
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Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is a person. He's the third person of the
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Trinity. He is the one who comes and indwells you when you believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ and he empowers you for whatever ministry he has chosen to gift you to accomplish.
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That is the work of the Holy Spirit. And I think, sadly, often the
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Holy Spirit is the most neglected of the Trinity, particularly among reformed folks, because we're so afraid of the eccentricities of charismaticism that we're afraid to talk about the power of the
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Spirit. And that's dangerous. Because, in fact, it is the Spirit who indwells us, who empowers us, and who causes us to want to will and do what
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God has commanded us to do. But there are other spirits.
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There is, as I mentioned, the spirit of slavery that would cause us to fall back into fear. There is false teaching and false spirits.
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There's even demonic spirits, which Paul will address later. Those who come.
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Who consider themselves or who pretend to be ministers of righteousness, but are actually ministers of Satan himself.
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So can I just simply say this, if we do not understand. The role of God, the
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Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit in our salvation, we should seek to. Because one of the ways that the cults and the false religions and the false teachers will try to infiltrate us is by trying to convince us of a wrong
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God. The God that is not the God of Scripture, that is not the Trinitarian God, is not the
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God that we should be serving. And serving any other God is idolatry. So that's when
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Paul says, people come, bring you a false Jesus, you tolerate it. People come, bring you a false spirit, a different spirit, you tolerate it and you shouldn't.
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Finally, a different gospel. And interestingly enough, this is the same thing that Paul said to the
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Galatians. You remember the beginning of Galatians? When Paul says to them,
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I am astonished, I am surprised that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
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Not that there is another one, but that there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
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But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.
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As I said before, I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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Paul is not mincing words with the Galatians or the Corinthians. Beloved, there are not many gospels.
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There is one gospel and all other gospels are impostors.
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False gospels always descend into one of two things. And this is how you can be clear to see what is a false gospel.
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False gospels will always descend into one of two things, legalism or licentiousness.
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Legalism or licentiousness. What's the difference? The gospel that says do, do, do and you will be saved is a false gospel because the gospel is done.
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Jesus did it. He died on the cross. He took our sin. He is our righteousness. He alone is our salvation.
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And the gospel that calls you to legalism is a false gospel. But the same, out of the same breath,
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I will say this, the gospel that says that if you come to Christ, it will not change your life. That is a false gospel as well.
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And I have talked to people that say that very thing. You can come to Jesus, believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus, be filled with the
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Holy Spirit and it make no change in your life. Beloved, that's a false teaching because the gospel is this.
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We are saved by grace alone, meaning nothing that we did has caused
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God to look upon us with his favor. But his grace alone, which he lavishes upon us as a gift, is how we are saved.
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And we receive that gift through faith alone, not by faith plus works, but through faith alone in Christ alone.
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Our faith is placed in the object of the son of God who gave himself for us, dying on the cross, taking our sins and providing for us a righteousness we did not have so that we could be called the children of God through adoption as sons.
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This is why when people ask me about, well, what about Rome? What do you think about Rome? Roman Catholics.
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I believe there are Roman Catholics who are saved, but Rome itself does not teach the gospel because Rome has abandoned the gospel of the scriptures, which is justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
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Oh, and by the way, if you have questions about Rome, just look at what the pontiff is now saying. Many roads to God.
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Many ways to God. Why? Well, because it's not about the truth.
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It's not about the truth. Paul says there's not many ways to God.
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In fact, in response to Francis, I would say Paul disagrees with you because he says there's one
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Jesus, there's one spirit, there's one gospel. And if you believe in a different Jesus, you believe in a different spirit or you believe in a different gospel, you have believed unto your own damnation.
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So the title of today's message was what do pastors worry about? And the answer is the same thing
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Paul fears in this message. That the people under their care. The people
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God has charged us to shepherd. Would be led astray like Eve was led astray in the garden.
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And as I said, I've seen people walk away into unbelief. I have seen people walk away into false teaching.
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I've seen people walk away into aberrant teaching and false religions. And it is a dagger to the soul.
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Ministry's hard as it is. It's just hard over the years, people come, people go for all manner of reasons.
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Not always bad, just happens, but it is a dagger to the heart to see someone walk away into a false gospel or a false
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Jesus being led by a false spirit. Paul had a pastor's heart.
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And therefore, he was concerned with Corinthians, and I want you to know if you are here, we care for you.
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And if you find yourself struggling with dangerous doctrines. Please.
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For the sake of your own soul. Come and talk to us, the cults are devastatingly clever.
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In the way that they convince people to come, take up the armor of God and stand alongside brothers and sisters who care about you.
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The days are wicked. The cults are wicked. But Christ is beautiful.
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Father. It's a serious subject for a serious day, as we consider the dangers of a different Christ, a different spirit and a different gospel.
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And I pray, oh, God, that today that the words that have been preached would resonate in the hearts of men and women here.
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And Lord, if anyone is being led astray. Into false teaching,
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God, I pray that you would protect them from that.
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I pray that you would keep us in this. Faith, Lord, that we would not abandon it,
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Lord God, only you can keep us, only you can give us the strength to persevere and only by your spirit will we persevere.
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So, Lord, help us to trust in you. In Christ's name.
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Amen. So as we come to the table.
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We're remembering. One other thing, we're remembering.