Aug 25, 2026 Show with Dr. Joe Morecraft on “Gospel Opportunities Our Sovereign Lord Gave to Me During a Health Crisis”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.

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It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 25th day of August, 2026.

I'm so thrilled that the Lord has answered my prayers and the prayers of many Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners, that my dear friend, Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III, has recovered and is still in the process of recovering from a fall in his home a number of months ago that led him to be hospitalized and then later brought to a physical rehab unit.

And finally, he has been released from the hospital, is back home, and has had probably about a month of preaching behind him again after returning to his pulpit. And I am just so thrilled that he is our guest today.

Introducing Dr. Joe Morecraft and His Church

Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III, who is founding pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and author of the eight-volume commentary on the Westminster Larger Catechism titled Authentic Christianity, today he's going to be addressing Gospel Opportunities Our Sovereign Lord Gave to Me During a Health Crisis, and he's also going to be addressing the magnificent and brilliant ending of the Book of Romans.

It's my honor and privilege and absolute joy to welcome you back to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Dr. Joe Moorcraft.

I'm also excited about being back. I always enjoy being on your program.

Well, if you could briefly describe Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, for our listeners.

Heritage Presbyterian Church is just north of Atlanta, and it's in the county seat of Forsyth County, which is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. In Cumming, Georgia, we were started nine or ten years ago.

Our people come from various places. Some of them drive long distances to be there, some less longer. But we have people from every kind of background, race, nationality, race, denomination, education level, economic level, everything.

They come from everywhere. And then God molds them into one. One of the reasons I enjoy the heritage is because these people are all committed to the pure and unmistakable form of faith of history and of the Bible.

Our doctrinal standard is the Westminster Confession of Faith and larger catechism. And our people love the old path. And they don't want to change what God has used throughout history. We support world missions.

We have a man in Brazil who is a great preacher in Portuguese and English. He has a church that he's just started that's growing rapidly. He started a seminary that has 150 students in it already the first year.

And God really blesses, and our influence far exceeds our number. We have elders that are godly elders whose heart is in the eldership who faithfully pastor the church. And we are on sermonaudio .com every Sunday.

We have about 3 ,500 sermons and lectures there. And we have people translating my sermons into Farsi, which is the official language of Iran, or in Portuguese, which is the official language of Brazil.

One interesting thing that my audio sermons are being translated into Portuguese by AI, and it's my voice. And so if you were to listen to them, you'd think it was me preaching in Portuguese. So we have many young adults in the church who are faithful at tithing, who are faithful at engaging culture, and God blesses them.

We have babies galore. We have expectant mothers, and God continues to help us grow by raising up these godly families. So I do praise the Lord for Heritage Presbyterian Church. We're a member of a small conservative denomination called the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and I hope I'm able to continue to be their full-time pastor for many decades to come.

And I join you in that prayer, and if anybody listening would like to find out more about Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, go to their website, heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, and the website for the eight-volume commentary that I mentioned is westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com.

Evangelism Through a Health Crisis

Anyway, please let our listeners know some of the details behind your recent health crisis, how long ago that occurred, meaning your fall in your home and how long you were in the hospital and so on.

Yes, I wanted to do that to encourage people who face hospitalization or who face serious physical maladies, to encourage them and to show that it can be a great opportunity to evangelize. Back in the early March, I had sepsis, which as you may know is a deadly blood disease.

I could not think clearly. I lost all the strength out of my legs. I could not walk. And in the process, I fell. Becky caught my head, so I didn't hit my head on the floor, but she had an ambulance come and take me to the hospital where they diagnosed me with sepsis.

And I stayed in the hospital for a week and a half until they got all the poison out of my system, which they did. So after a week and a half, the blood poisoning was gone, but I still needed to regain my strength and the use of my legs.

So I went to a rehab center where I stayed for two and a half months. And I would do physical therapy and occupational therapy all morning. And then afternoons, I would be free. What's amazing about this rehab place, they're very professional, very knowledgeable.

They helped me greatly so that I was stronger when I left than I was when I came. And the people there, the nurses, some of the doctors, the nurse's aides, came from all over the world to work there. Most of them were from Africa, but there were also nurses there from the Far East, Korea.

There were nurses there from the Philippines, from South America. There were Europeans there and Americans there. It was quite a diversity of nationalities and races. And so the opportunities that I had to witness and to evangelize, when I look back and think about it, the number of those opportunities was staggering.

I didn't have to go out to the world and preach the gospel. The world came to me in a hospital bed. And I'll just give you a few examples to show you how God gave me opportunities to witness. The head nurse on my floor was a South Korean lady.

And she was a member of the Korean Presbyterian Church, which over the 20th century had revival after revival led by Presbyterian ministers. And I would recommend, by the way, to your audience, a very good banner of truth book called the Korean Pentecost.

That is a story, it's a paperback, and it is the story of the work of the Holy Spirit through these Presbyterian missionaries in the 20th century. Well, she came to my room one night to check my pulse and vitals and all that stuff.

And she found out I was a Presbyterian preacher. And she was a Presbyterian Korean, so she said, Pastor Moorcraft, would you please pray for my brother? This was about 11 o 'clock one night. Would you please pray for my brother?

He's disappeared in North Korea. Wow. And I'm sure your audience knows that North Korea is a communist state. So I prayed with her, and I prayed that God would find his brother and bring his brother back home.

That was 11 o 'clock one night. The next morning at 9 o 'clock, they found him. He was in a car wreck, knocked out, no serious injuries. Just a few shallow fractures. And they brought him home. Well, she was so thrilled with God answering my prayers that he would come often to see me in my room.

The workers in this rehab were all very good. I wasn't crazy about the food. So I quit eating their food. I lost 40 pounds. And so what she would do would be cook me a homemade Korean meal of six different dishes every night.

Wow. So I would eat Korean food, then Becky would bring me some of her good home-cooked food, and then my son and others would sneak in some food. So I ate very well. But to show you the providence of God, this Korean nurse grew up closely connected with the family of a woman in my church in South Korea.

Wow. And so I called that woman, and I told her, I said, if you come and visit me with your husband in the hospital, I got a surprise for you. So they come, she and her husband come to my room, and there is this Korean nurse.

And they talked and talked and talked in Korean for about 40 minutes. And this nurse knew her father, her grandfather, her great-grandfather, her family. Her daddy, this woman that was in my church at Kalsadong, her daddy was a great missionary.

His name was Linton, L-I-N-T-O-N. And the Lintons had been greatly used in God in Korea for generations. In fact, her daddy planted 250 churches and then was killed in a car wreck. So it was quite a thing to watch these two women talk to each other.

I don't think they had ever met, but they each knew the other's families very well. And that shows you how God controls the whole world and can bring things together that man could not at all orchestrate.

So we would have, I would have nurses that would come in and they would check my vitals regularly. They'd bring me lunch. They would do all these various things, clean my room and all that kind of stuff.

And I would always try to witness to them when they came into my room, saying some element of the truth. You can't say much. Some of the times you can just get various pieces of the truth into their consciences, hopefully.

But then what would happen was that at night, late at night, sometimes these nurses, particularly the Africans, would come into my room and nobody knowing that they were there simply to get me to pray for them.

Wow. Or to ask me questions about the Christian faith. And a lot of them were already Christian. There were people there from Nigeria and Ghana and Kenya and all over the place. And Nigeria. So it was a great opportunity.

These nurses, I didn't realize after I left how much I would miss them. Because they were really hungry for some element of the truth. They would all call me Pastor. One woman from Haiti called me Pastor Papa.

Huh. And another African nurse took great pride in the fact that she had 18 brothers. Same mother and father. She was the youngest child. She was a biblical twin. And the other twin was a boy. So she grew up in a family with 18 boys and herself.

And at lunchtime, I would sometimes eat lunch at a dining room there, which was a nice dining room. And I would witness to the people at my table, which sometimes was very difficult. Because there was not only a rehab center there, there was a home for seniors there, there was a hospital there.

And some of the people that would eat at my table were very difficult to communicate, to understand because of health problems. There was always, there was a German man that would eat with me every now and then.

My grandmother was a German immigrant, so I could speak German to him. But he wouldn't speak unless he was spoken to. And when we were doing physical therapy together, if the nurse was doing something he didn't like, he would criticize her to me in German so she couldn't understand and then smile real big because he knew the only person that could understand his criticism was me.

And so it just went on and on like that. That we had, I would sometimes have visitors that would line up for my room and go out in the hall, a long line of visitors, one right after another, all afternoon.

And these nurses would just stand there in amazement. And they said they'd never seen anything like it. So the opportunities to witness, I hope I get to see them all again. I would love to see them. I would love that one man, particularly from Africa, took extremely good care of me.

And so gradually through the efforts of all these nurses, therapists, doctors, after two and a half months, which is a long time in a hospital bed, I could come home and I can walk with a walker. I preach every Sunday, still pastor full time.

And I preach in an electric wheelchair, which is good. You could preach longer in a wheelchair, but you can't get as animated. And so the first Sunday I was back after being gone for three or four months from the pulpit, to let the people know I was back to full health.

I preached a two hour sermon. So they asked me, they said, Brother Morpeth, is that the longest sermon you've ever preached? I said, no. One time years ago, I was invited to preach to about 400 Pentecostal preachers and college workers on how to preach the gospel.

So I preached for 16 hours. Wow. In Gainesville, Florida, on how to preach the gospel. And after I finished the 16th hour, of course there were breaks every few, several minutes and we'd sleep at night.

16 hours, then I sat down thinking it was time to go home and the audience stood up and said, for God's sake, Brother Morpeth, go on.

They probably never heard preaching like that before. So I preached two more hours.

And I told them, I said, you asked me to come here and show you how to preach the gospel. I'm going to do that. I'm not going to take into consideration any charismatic sensitivities. I'm going to tell you how to preach the gospel.

So that was a longer sermon. So I was there in a hospital and a rehab center for about four months. Wow. And my core health has always been good. All of my physicals and blood tests, everything had been good.

I had more strength in my legs. I still need to walk with a walker, which that will always be the case. Because 30 years ago, I fell out of a tree 20 feet. I was deer hunting and I didn't know the deer stand was rotten.

So I have traumatic arthritis in all my joints from my back down. But praise the Lord, I can get around with this wheelchair and with this walker. And my mind is clear. All of the substance is gone. All of its effects are over.

And I feel thrilled to be able to be back and preach the gospel. While I was gone, I had several people preach for me that are thoroughly reformed people. One was Bill Potter. You've had him on your show before.

Bill Potter preached the great sermons. But the one preacher that they liked a lot when I'm gone, he preached it for me. Is this Reformed Baptist. He's almost Presbyterian, but he's Reformed Baptist. He is thoroughly reformed and I think you've had him on your show.

Paul Abbott? Oh yes, I have had Paul Abbott on the show.

I made sure to finance a mission trip for him and a team of other Reformed Baptists to places like Cuba and Mexico, where they preach the gospel.

And I've had the privilege to meet Paul on several occasions face-to-face at conferences.

He's great. He's about my size. A lot younger than me, but he has this big, thick beard and a powerful preacher, a tenured evangelist. I asked one woman in our church after he preached, I said, well, how was Brother Abbott this morning?

And she said, loud. But he is a great preacher. So that's basically how it went. So I hope to see some of these people again. I hope they show up at my church.

Just so that I can... I was just curious, were the folks to whom you had the privilege and opportunities providentially to evangelize, were they from diverse backgrounds religiously? Were any of them professing Christians?

Most of the Africans were. Most of the Africans were either charismatic or probably Anglican, because a lot of the African nations used to be in the British Commonwealth. And old-time Anglicanism, you know.

Anglicans of Africa left the Church of England because of all of the liberalism in the Church of England. So they have an Anglican Church in Africa. It's by and large a solidly biblical group. And so many of them were knowledgeable, and some of them more knowledgeable than others.

Some of them, a few of them, not many, but a few were Roman Catholics. And so the opportunity to spread the truth all over the world in four months, lying in bed or in a wheelchair, was something I don't think I'll ever get over.

Now, how long have you been home and back behind your pulpit? A little over two months. Oh, two months. Praise God. Praise God. Well, when we come back—go ahead, I'm sorry. I was just going to say, when we come back, unless you want to add to that portion of our discussion, we will shift gears over to the second part of your theme today, which is the magnificent and brilliant ending of the Book of Romans.

The Book of Romans has been used in such mighty and powerful ways in history, not only in the days when it was written by the Apostle Paul, but even in the Protestant Reformation. Some key texts from the Book of Romans were used in the heart, mind, and soul of Martin Luther, causing him to abandon the false gospel of the Church of Rome.

But I'm waiting with bated breath to hear about the magnificent and brilliant ending of the Book of Romans. And by the way, I want to thank you for something that I just discovered that I didn't even know about your website.

When I went to HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com and I clicked on Recommended Resources, there you have listed Iron Sherpins Iron Radio, addresses a multitude of topics from a distinctly Reformed worldview.

Chris Arnson asks the right questions, presents guests who have the answers, and continually challenges Christians to apply their faith to every aspect of their lives. Pastor Moorcraft is a frequent guest.

I was so honored to see that on your website. I never knew it was there.

Well, that's one thing I forgot, is that when you go to our website, there is a link that says Free Materials or Free Resources. Go to that because I have 60 or so different papers and books in PDF form that are all free.

Praise God. Well, we'll be repeating that website later on in the program. And we're going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors. So please do not go away. There is more to come with Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III.

And we'll be right back after these messages.

I'm Simon O'Mahony, pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally from Cork, Ireland, the Lord in his sovereign providence has called me to shepherd this new and growing congregation here in Cumberland County.

At TRBC, we joyfully uphold the Second London Baptist Confession. We embrace congregational church government, and we are committed to preaching the full counsel of God's Word for the edification of believers, the salvation of the lost, and the glory of our Triune God.

We are also devoted to living out the one another commands of scripture, loving, encouraging, and serving each other as the body of Christ. In our worship, we sing psalms and the great hymns of the faith, and we gather around the Lord's table every Sunday.

We would love for you to visit and worship with us. You can find our details at trbccarlisle .org. That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, we'll see you soon.

When it first launched in 2005, the publishers of the New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the Iron Shepherd and Zion Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the NASB.

I'm Pastor Nate Pickowitz of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmont and Ironworks, New Hampshire, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.

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Here's a great way for your church to help keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart? Consider restocking your pews with the NASB. And tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.

James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and the Dividing Line webcast here. Although God has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach, preach, and debate at numerous venues, some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with Pastor Rich Jensen and the brethren at Hope Reform Baptist Church, now located at their new, beautiful facilities in Corham, Long Island, New York.

I've had the privilege of opening God's Word from their pulpit on many occasions, have led youth retreats for them, and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my New York debates.

I do not hesitate to highly recommend Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught, discipled, and edified by the Holy Scriptures, and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in Christ.

For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net. That's hopereformedli .net, or call 631 -696 -5711. That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, that you heard about them from James White on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

I'm Dr. Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology.

At Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight-volume commentary on the Theology and Ethics of the Westminster Larger Catechism, titled Authentic Christianity, by Dr. Joseph Morecraft.

It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes Biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology. Dr. Morecraft is Pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a Biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

For details on the eight-volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com. For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.

Please tell Dr. Morecraft and the Saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, that Dr. Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you.

Romans 16:25–27 and the Historical Power of Romans

And welcome back, in that very man of whom Dr. Joseph Piper was speaking, Dr. Joseph C. Morecraft III is on the program, if you just tuned in late, and we were hearing some of the wonderful ways that God used him as a beacon of truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who were taking care of him in the hospital and in the rehabilitation facility after a fall in his home.

He spent months in the rehabilitation facility there in Georgia, and we thank God that for two months now, he has been home and preaching the gospel from his pulpit once again. When we continue our conversation, in any moment now, we are going to pick up on the magnificent and brilliant ending of the Book of Romans.

So, when you say the ending of the Book of Romans, how many verses are you speaking of, brother?

I'm speaking of three verses, the 25th, 26th, 27th verses of Romans 16. As you pointed out just a few minutes ago, this has been a nuclear bomb in history on various occasions. Martin Luther, when he started reading the Book of Romans, became a Christian and started preaching on the Book of Romans in a powerful, spiritual, empowered way.

And Martin Luther was sometimes prone to exaggeration, and so God raised up John Calvin to write the truth, but the Reformation needed a fledgehammer and to break the rock of a thousand years of medieval Catholicism.

And God used the preaching of Martin Luther to bring the Word of God to life, largely through the Book of Romans. And then, in the early 20th century, the Book of Romans was misused by a man named Karl Barth, who was a German neo-Orthodox theologian, which means he was not really sound.

He used biblical words, but he redefined the words with existentialist philosophy. But he wrote a book on Romans, and because the words were all biblical, it hit like a bomb, and evangelicals began praising him and recommending his book and thinking that he was God's answer to the liberalism of the 19th century.

When, as a matter of fact, he was not a part of the liberalism of the 19th century, except he'd come to the point where old rationalistic liberalism of the 19th century had come to a dead end. And so now Karl Barth brings it to the fore by basing the Book of Romans on irrationalism and on existentialism, and blinded the church.

So for most of the church, the influence of Barth's interpretation of Romans has been unfortunately dominant. So let me encourage your readers, don't think that Karl Barth is a friend. Karl Barth is a wolf in cute clothing.

It's a lot easier to identify a wolf that looks like a wolf than it is a wolf that drifts in cute clothing.

And that is Karl Barth. Yeah, there seems to be a revival of appreciation for him. There seems to be a revival of appreciation for him. So to further deceiving people.

It is deceiving people. And I would recommend a book. It's not easy reading. But in 1941, Cornelius Van Til wrote a book called Christianity and Barthianism. And he clearly distinguished them from each other.

That Christianity is not Barthianism and Barthianism is not Christianity. It's a difficult book to read. But it is a view that shows that the evangelicals of the 20th century have been misled and been deceived.

But the Book of Romans has always played such a central role in the spread of the gospel and the spread of the church and the kingdom of God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for instance, preached on the Book of Romans for I don't know how many years.

And you can buy his commentary on the Book of Romans, which is probably seven or eight volumes of Furman's book just on the Book of Romans. And the minutes of time I've been here in Atlanta, which is about 50 years, I've gone through the Book of Romans three times.

And I hope to preach through it again someday. But the ending of the Book of Romans is what is so magnificent. Let me read these three verses and then tell you why I wanted to talk about them today. Romans 16, verses 25 through 27.

I mean, it is crammed packed with truth. It is so brilliantly written. Let me just give you an example of how it wraps up and summarizes the whole Book of Romans. In the beginning of the Book of Romans, in the first chapter, Paul tells the Roman church in Rome that he wanted to come and visit them, so as to establish them and make them firm and steadfast in the faith.

And now he ends this whole book by saying that if I come and minister to you, it won't be me that establishes you in the faith. It will be the living God, because only he, not man, can make you steadfast and tertiary in the faith.

And then in the very context of the last chapter, there is this very severe warning. I'm going to read these for you in a minute. There is a very severe warning in verses 17 through 19. The glorious benediction promise, a covenant promise in verse 20.

There is a glorious benediction in the last part of verse 20 and 24. And the last three verses are connected with those. Let me read verse 17, 18, and 19, 20. Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause distinctions and hindrances.

Entree to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites, and not of their smooth and flattering feet. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

For the report of your obedience has reached them all. Therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. And the God of peace will soon thrust Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. So Paul is telling these people, here is the way you are to live if you are to see God really work in you and through you in the Roman Empire. Number one, keep your eye on those who are causing distinctions and spreading heresies.

Entree to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. Already in the first half of the first century, Paul's teachers were going through the church and through the empire, preaching things that were not true.

Paul says keep your eye on them. Now the only way you can keep your eye on Paul's teachers is by being able to discern truth from error and right from wrong. One of the rarest things in the 21st century among Christians is discernment.

That very few Christians can discern guilt from poison. As Spurgeon has this great quote that I use every opportunity that I can. Because discernment is not just the ability to distinguish right from wrong.

It is the ability to distinguish right from almost right. And that's why I call Bart to preach again. And these other Paul's teachers. It's because the average Christian does not have the discernment to discern right from almost right and truth from error.

How do you get discernment? You don't get a discernment by taking a pill. That's the easy way. It takes work. It takes sacrifice. There are no shortcuts. You must be a daily, dogged, disciplined student of the word of God.

That must be your life, your power, your strength. You must read it not simply for having a devotion every morning. Or have a verse for the day so that you can use that verse as a lucky charm throughout the day.

Those things are important. What's important is having devotional like virgin morning and evening. But if all you're doing is reading the Bible for devotion, that is, table talk or morning and evening and you're reimbursed.

And then there's a couple of paragraphs explaining it. You're not going to be very relevant in this world. I guarantee you, you will not have the discernment you're going to need to survive. That you study the Bible.

You read it as a book. Not only on how to go to heaven when you die. But how to think the way God thinks. How to look at things the way God looks at things. How to understand all the various issues of life.

To look at life from the perspective of truth and thy word is truth. I define truth when I speak to young people like this. Truth is God's opinion of a thing. I may have opinions of things, but my opinions are not always truth.

But God's opinion of a thing is what that thing really means. Truth is God's opinion of something and he has given his opinion on everything we need to know in Holy Scripture. So that the Bible is divinely authoritative in everything about which it speaks.

And it speaks about everything. Everything the Bible asserts as truth is truth. And if we are going to be able to identify false teachers. And those that bring heresy and poison into the church. And cause division in the church.

Who are slaves of their own appetites and not of Christ. Whose speech is eloquent, smooth and flattering. Unable to deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. If we are to keep our eyes on them, we are to have discernment.

And if we are to have discernment, we must study, study, study the word of God. But it's not enough just to keep your eyes on these people. It says in verse 17. Now I urge you brethren to keep your eye on those who cause dissension and indifference.

Contrary to the teaching which you learn and turn away from them. If you have family members or you yourself or you have friends. That go to a church where the gospel is not preached. Where the Bible is not looked upon as inerrant and incapable of error.

Get out of that church. That's the command of God here. It says not only keep your eye on them but turn away from them. Don't stay in a church or denomination. That has broken free from the foundation of the word of God.

Separate from it. That's what Paul did in Acts 19. Paul was preaching in the synagogue. The Christians would come to the synagogue. Cause there were still sympathetic Jews in the synagogue. That's where they would have their worship services with Christians.

And they have their church services. Their Bible study. But then Paul said. When the leaders of the synagogue started speaking evil of the way. Capital W. When the leaders of the synagogue quit speaking.

Started speaking evil. Against the way. Paul. Separated the disciples. And started teaching in the school of a man named Tyrannus. And so the gospel spread because of that all over Asia. Now Paul was not the schismatic.

Paul separated from the church cause we're to separate from evil. But he wasn't because of the schism. The schismatics were the false teachers. Those that spoke evil of the way. Jesus said I am the way.