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God's Perfect Loyalty: A Reflection on 2 Corinthians 11
In the sermon delivered by Pastor Josh Massaro at Middletown Baptist Church on February 23, 2025, the profound theme of 'Loyalty in Love' is meticulously explored through the lens of Second Corinthians chapter 11. The pastor commences by affirming God's unwavering loyalty to humanity, positioning this divine fidelity as the impetus for our loyalty in return. He articulates that loyalty is not merely a duty but a reflection of love, urging believers to embody this principle in their daily lives. The pastor delves into the historical context of the Corinthian church, which faced the insidious threat of false teachings that sought to undermine their faith. This discussion serves as a timely reminder of the importance of discerning the truth and remaining steadfast in one's commitment to the Gospel. Throughout the sermon, Massaro emphasizes the need for a singular focus on Christ, cautioning against the subtle deceptions that can lead believers astray. He exhorts the congregation to cultivate a deep love for God’s Word, which is essential for nurturing their loyalty and ensuring their spiritual well-being. The sermon ultimately inspires a commitment to uphold the truth of the Gospel and to foster a heart aligned with God's will, reinforcing the notion that true loyalty is an active, loving response to God's grace.
Takeaways:
- Pastor Josh emphasizes the importance of loyalty in our relationship with God, which should be demonstrated through our love and commitment to Him.
- In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul addresses the need for the church to realign their loyalty to the true gospel and Jesus Christ.
- Loyalty to God is intricately linked to our understanding and acceptance of Jesus as the sole path to salvation, without any additions or modifications.
- God's faithfulness to us serves as the foundation for our loyalty to Him, reminding us that even when we falter, He remains steadfast in His love.
- The podcast underlines the significance of discernment against false teachings that distort the essence of the gospel and Jesus' identity.
- Pastor Josh encourages listeners to cultivate a single-minded devotion to Christ, urging them to reject distractions that lead them away from their faith.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Speaker A:My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
Speaker A:I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
Speaker A:Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
Speaker A:And we're going to be learning about the truth of God through another Passage of Scripture, Second Corinthians, chapter 11.
Speaker A:If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn there with me now.
Speaker A:Second Corinthians, 11.
Speaker A:Just by way of reminder, if you received a bulletin coming in on the back of that bulletin, we have our outline.
Speaker A:You could follow along.
Speaker A:I know some people like to follow along and fill in the blanks.
Speaker A:I will try to do my best to keep those blanks, those answers to those blanks given to you.
Speaker A:I sometimes get ahead of myself.
Speaker A:So if you.
Speaker A:If you miss one, I just appreciate you not throw any tomatoes at me and stop the service.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker A:I'll give you the answer at the end of the service if you really want it.
Speaker A:We do have a PowerPoint that we're going to follow along with here this morning, too.
Speaker A:So if we can get that up there Today, we're in Second Corinthians, chapter 11.
Speaker A:And the title of our sermon this morning is the Loyalty in Love.
Speaker A:Loyalty in love.
Speaker A:God desires from us loyalty.
Speaker A:Why does he desire loyalty from us?
Speaker A:Because of his perfect loyalty to us.
Speaker A:We know that God is completely faithful.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And we even heard that this morning in that song, his mercy is more.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I know that for me, we got a little emotional because I was thinking about that phrase, his mercy is more.
Speaker A:And I said, his mercy is more than what?
Speaker A:And then the answer that I just thought in my mind is it's.
Speaker A:It's better than everything.
Speaker A:His mercy is more than everything in my life, all my good, all of my bad, all of all of my failures, his mercy is greater than that.
Speaker A:And so our God is perfectly faithful to us.
Speaker A:And therefore, because of his word and because of the call for us to model his lifestyle, his character in our life, we should be faithful to Him.
Speaker A:So God calls us to loyalty, but loyalty in love.
Speaker A:And so God desires our hearts to be completely loyal to Him.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:Now, is that going to happen?
Speaker A:Well, we're going to talk about that here in a few moments.
Speaker A:But God's desire is that we would be completely loyal to Him.
Speaker A:And what does loyal mean?
Speaker A:Loyal means faithful, committed.
Speaker A:How do we show Our loyalty.
Speaker A:Well, we show our loyalty through love.
Speaker A:The way that I show my loyalty to my wife is by loving her completely.
Speaker A:The way I show my loyalty to my children is by loving them completely.
Speaker A:The way I show, I show my loyalty to the church that I pastors loving them completely.
Speaker A:And it's the same thing when it comes to our loyalty to God.
Speaker A:The way we demonstrate our loyalty to God is through loving him completely.
Speaker A:Now, I do want to make a note of a scriptural passage that talks about that very same thing.
Speaker A:Mark, chapter 12.
Speaker A:Mark, chapter 12, verses 29 through 31.
Speaker A:Mark, chapter 12, verses 39.
Speaker A:Excuse me.
Speaker A:29 through 31 explained to us very clearly that it is God's desire for us to love him completely.
Speaker A:If you remember that story, there was an individual, a young guy, a ruler, a lawyer, who came up and was trying to test Jesus.
Speaker A:And you remember what he asked him?
Speaker A:He says, what's the greatest commandment?
Speaker A:Thinking that Jesus would have to pick one of these commandments to follow.
Speaker A:And you know, well, if you think that's better than what about this one?
Speaker A:And Jesus answers him in perfection.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:He says this in verse 29.
Speaker A:The first of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength.
Speaker A:And this is the first commandment.
Speaker A:And the second is like, namely this.
Speaker A:Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Speaker A:There is none other commandment greater than these.
Speaker A:And Jesus says, hey, look, if you want to know what it means to be loyal to God, it means to love him completely with our hearts, souls, minds, strengths, with everything.
Speaker A:That's what Jesus is saying here.
Speaker A:He says, the greatest thing that we can do as a believer to demonstrate our loyalty to him, to demonstrate our obedience to him, is to love him with everything.
Speaker A:Love means sacrifice.
Speaker A:Love means service.
Speaker A:Love means the that we're willing to put others before ourselves.
Speaker A:And then he says, hey, look, if you want to see that in action, love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker A:That's loyalty.
Speaker A:That's loyalty to God.
Speaker A:That's what God's asking.
Speaker A:God is not asking us to keep all 613 commandments.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because we can't.
Speaker A:You can't do enough.
Speaker A:There.
Speaker A:There's a.
Speaker A:There's a false teaching out there.
Speaker A:There's a.
Speaker A:There's a group of people in this world that believe in the grace of God.
Speaker A:And they say, hey, it's.
Speaker A:We're saved by the grace of God.
Speaker A:Plus, everything that we can do, folks, we cannot do enough.
Speaker A:God's grace is abundant.
Speaker A:God's grace is infinite.
Speaker A:There's nothing that we can do to earn our love that God gives us.
Speaker A:So there's nothing that we can do to earn God's mercy.
Speaker A:And so salvation is not based in our loyalty to God.
Speaker A:Thank goodness for that.
Speaker A:Thank the Lord that God doesn't just save those that are perfectly loyal to him.
Speaker A:Because you know what?
Speaker A:I can't do that.
Speaker A:I don't know about you, but I cannot be perfectly loyal to my Savior.
Speaker A:I want to be, but I cannot be perfectly loyal.
Speaker A:And so though God desires our loyalty, our salvation is not based in our perfect loyalty.
Speaker A:There are some people out there that teach this.
Speaker A:If you're not perfectly loyal to the Lord, you must not be a Christian.
Speaker A:The truth is, is that none of us can be completely loyal to Him.
Speaker A:And so what is the royal of loyalty when it comes to our relationship with the Lord?
Speaker A:Well, I think it's this.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I think that we're reminded in second Timothy, chapter two, verse 13 that even when we are not faithful, even when we fall short of our loyalty to him, it says this.
Speaker A:If we believe not yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
Speaker A:Meaning this, if we are faithless, he still remains faithful.
Speaker A:And so the beauty of our salvation is this.
Speaker A:Yes, God saves us.
Speaker A:Yes, God gifts us with eternal life.
Speaker A:Yes, God expects us to be faithful to Him.
Speaker A:But when we fall short in our faithfulness, when we fall short in our loyalty, he is completely loyal to us.
Speaker A:All the more reason for us to strive to be loyal to him out of thanksgiving, out of appreciation.
Speaker A:Lord, you know what?
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I can go back in times in my life, Lord, that I have been so, so rebellious.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I have been so unfaithful.
Speaker A:But yet you have been faithful to me.
Speaker A:Therefore that drives me forward to service for him.
Speaker A:I said this recently to somebody, I said, you know what, the thing that makes our type of faith different, our, our belief system different is that most belief systems in this world say this.
Speaker A:Do f things so that you can get salvation, work and be a better person, so that you can reach some type of love and grace by a deity.
Speaker A:But what the Bible says, it's the complete opposite.
Speaker A:Come to Christ.
Speaker A:Not perfect.
Speaker A:Not perfect.
Speaker A:You know, some people say, pastor, can I come to church if I'm not perfect?
Speaker A:Yes, please.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:Cuz where, where else are you going to go to get cleaned up, right?
Speaker A:You can't clean yourself up and then come to church because none of us will be able to come into this, you know, these doors.
Speaker A:And so the truth is, the difference about our salvation is that we don't work to get to salvation.
Speaker A:God's already done the work, and we trust in that work.
Speaker A:And so we come to Christ in faith, and then we serve.
Speaker A:And so we don't serve and be loyal to be saved.
Speaker A:We are saved to be servants and to be loyal.
Speaker A:And that's the beauty of what we have in Christ.
Speaker A:And so the way that we demonstrate our loyalty to God is by demonstrating our love for him, demonstrating our love for Him.
Speaker A:A love for what?
Speaker A:How do we love God?
Speaker A:Well, we love His Word, folks.
Speaker A:We should have a desire to love God's Word, to grow in God's Word, to obey God's Word.
Speaker A:He even said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Speaker A:He doesn't say, if you want to be saved, keep my commandments.
Speaker A:He says, if you love me, show that you love me by keeping my commandments.
Speaker A:And so the way that we can demonstrate loyalty to God is by loving and obeying and dwelling in His Word.
Speaker A:Another thing that we can do is to love his ways, to love his path in our life.
Speaker A:We talked about it this morning in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.
Speaker A:Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding.
Speaker A:In all thy ways acknowledge him.
Speaker A:And so it's trusting in his ways, it's loving his ways, and ultimately it's loving his work, the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the work of transformation.
Speaker A:As Ms.
Speaker A:Suzette sang this morning, how can I not be changed?
Speaker A:How can I not be transformed?
Speaker A:I must love that work of God in my life.
Speaker A:And so many times we say we're loyal, but yet we're not loving the Word.
Speaker A:We're not loving his ways.
Speaker A:We're not loving his work in our life.
Speaker A:And we're going to talk about that very thing here in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11.
Speaker A:Loyalty to the Lord through love.
Speaker A:Let's go ahead and pray, and we'll jump right into our main text this morning.
Speaker A:Lord, I thank you for this time.
Speaker A:Thank you for this opportunity to look into your word.
Speaker A:Lord, I pray that you challenge our hearts.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You comfort us.
Speaker A:You convict us, Lord.
Speaker A:You get us to a place in our life where we can see the truth of God and the importance of what it means to be loyal to you because of your perfect faithfulness to us.
Speaker A:Lord, I pray that if there's someone here today that does not know you as Savior that has been trusting in something outside of your work, that today can be the day of salvation, that today can be the day of transformation, that today can be the day that we can understand what it means that, that we have a loyal Savior.
Speaker A:So we thank you.
Speaker A:We love you.
Speaker A:I pray that you can remove any distractions from our minds and from our hearts.
Speaker A:Lord.
Speaker A:Allow me to be removed from the picture, Lord, and allow your word to be clearly seen this morning.
Speaker A:Shine light into our minds, into our hearts.
Speaker A:We ask all these things in Jesus name.
Speaker A:Amen.
Speaker A:We're in Second Corinthians, chapter 11.
Speaker A:We're going to start in verse number one.
Speaker A:And again, you, you have to understand the context of, of what we've been studying.
Speaker A:Second Corinthians, Paul is coming to a church that has been started a while back and they've had a lot of issues.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Paul has invested into their lives by telling them what it means to love God, what it means to have salvation, what it means to worship him properly.
Speaker A:But yet they've strayed and they've allowed other people who have come into the church here in Corinth and they have been preaching things opposite of what Paul has preached them.
Speaker A:And what's happened is, is this, they begin to believe the other teachers instead of Paul.
Speaker A:They begin to question what Paul has taught and therefore questioning what God has taught them.
Speaker A:They've been saying this, Paul, you're, you're two faced.
Speaker A:Paul, you're a hypocrite.
Speaker A:Because these guys are telling us something different.
Speaker A:And so Paul now is defending his himself.
Speaker A:And by defending himself, he's defending the gospel, he's defending the truth of God.
Speaker A:And so Second Corinthians, chapter 11 is him coming and explaining to the people, this is what I have taught you, this is what they are teaching you.
Speaker A:Let's look at the difference.
Speaker A:Let's put them to the test.
Speaker A:And he talks about their loyalty to God instead of their loyalty to teachers, their loyalty to the truth instead of the loyalty to the lies.
Speaker A:And so in here, in Second Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul is under attack.
Speaker A:But by way of extension, God's message is under attack.
Speaker A:And so the Corinthian context is this.
Speaker A:The whole book of Second Corinthians is about getting the church in Corinth to realign in their loyalty to Jesus and the truth of the gospel.
Speaker A:All of 2 Corinthians is about realigning the church back to the truth, back to the true Jesus, back to the true Gospel.
Speaker A:And so Paul is like, guys, you need to get back on track.
Speaker A:You understood it at one point and you've seen great fruit in your life.
Speaker A:You've seen God transform in your life.
Speaker A:But now you're starting to drift back into your old ways.
Speaker A:You're allowing things from your pagan culture to mingle into the worship of the true God.
Speaker A:You're allowing these false teachers to draw you away with their fancy talk and with their appealing language.
Speaker A:And yet you have to go back to what you know about Jesus and the gospel.
Speaker A:And so their disloyalty to Paul, because at this point in time, they're not being loyal to Paul.
Speaker A:They're basically telling Paul, we don't want to hear anything from you.
Speaker A:We're done with you're fake.
Speaker A:They're attacking his authority, they're attacking his apostleship, they're attacking everything that he has said to them.
Speaker A:And so their disloyalty to Paul is not just a disloyalty to a human, a preacher, an apostle.
Speaker A:Their disloyalty was to the message of Christ.
Speaker A:So, so, so the church rejecting Paul's message was them rejecting the message of Christ because Paul is preaching.
Speaker A:Thus saith the Lord.
Speaker A:This is what the word of God says.
Speaker A:This is what Jesus told me.
Speaker A:This is how you should live.
Speaker A:This is how you should believe.
Speaker A:And they go, paul, we don't want what you're bringing us.
Speaker A:And what the Bible tells us is that when people reject us, when people hate us, when people turn their backs against us, it's not so much a personal slide as much as it is that they hate God.
Speaker A:Their rejection is a rejection of God.
Speaker A:And so they're rejecting Paul here.
Speaker A:So Paul isn't just being petty here.
Speaker A:When he defends himself.
Speaker A:He's not like, well, I want everyone to like me.
Speaker A:He's like, hey, I gotta get together what I've been preaching to them and I gotta defend myself because I'm defending the truth of God.
Speaker A:And so we see that by defending his ministry, Paul is defending the gospel.
Speaker A:The Bible says in the book of Jude that we should contend for the faith, that we should fight for the truth, that we should fight for the gospel.
Speaker A:And so that's what Paul is doing here.
Speaker A:In verse number one, he's going to explain the foolishness of this.
Speaker A:It's like, I shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker A:I shouldn't have to come back to you and defend myself and who I am and what I believe.
Speaker A:But yet he has to here.
Speaker A:And, and so in verse number one, we see this.
Speaker A:He says, would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly or foolishness.
Speaker A:And indeed, bear with me.
Speaker A:You say, what is he talking about here?
Speaker A:Well, he's saying this.
Speaker A:This.
Speaker A:Bear with me because we're about to go through some foolishness.
Speaker A:He's answering a fool according to their folly.
Speaker A:He says, look, really, I gotta go back and do this.
Speaker A:This is foolishness.
Speaker A:He's not saying that he's foolish for doing this.
Speaker A:He's saying the fact that he has to defend what he has preached already is foolishness.
Speaker A:They've.
Speaker A:They're past this.
Speaker A:And, and so the necessity of defending himself was foolishness here.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But he realized that it was a necessity he had to do this.
Speaker A:And so it was brought on by their own foolishness.
Speaker A:The church at Corinth was foolish in the fact that they were rejecting the truth.
Speaker A:The Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God.
Speaker A:But we even know that foolishness is just rejecting the truths of God.
Speaker A:And so it's because of their foolishness that Paul has to defend himself and defend the gospel.
Speaker A:He calls it folly because he does it reluctantly, knowing his time and effort could be spent on far better things, specifically the gospel.
Speaker A:He wants to spend his time on training these people so that they can go out and preach the gospel.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:He wants to spend his time starting other churches.
Speaker A:He wants to spend his time showing the love of Christ to people.
Speaker A:But now he's like, we gotta take a step back.
Speaker A:Similar to the idea of, hey, you know what, you guys should be on the meat, but you're still on the milk.
Speaker A:And actually at this point, you don't even have the milk rate.
Speaker A:And so he's going back and saying, I, we gotta rethink what we're all about.
Speaker A:And so that's what he's saying here.
Speaker A:Bear with me while we deal with this foolishness.
Speaker A:It's, it's.
Speaker A:It's essentially Paul being very frustrated in the Lord.
Speaker A:He says, look, I gotta come back and we gotta do this again.
Speaker A:We're gonna start from ground zero.
Speaker A:And so we're gonna move a little bit further here.
Speaker A:And, and, and he talks in verse two about godly jealousy.
Speaker A:He says, I am jealous for you, verse two, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.
Speaker A:That's maybe a phrase that you didn't know that was in scripture.
Speaker A:Godly jealousy.
Speaker A:We always hear that jealousy is out and out bad.
Speaker A:Don't be jealous.
Speaker A:Well, there's two different types of jealousy.
Speaker A:There's worldly, selfish jealousy, and there's, as the Bible says, here Godly jealousy.
Speaker A:And we're going to talk about each one of those things.
Speaker A:So what is worldly jealousy?
Speaker A:Well, it's a jealousy that we're not supposed to have.
Speaker A:Sinful jealousy or worldly jealousy is based in covetousness.
Speaker A:What's covetousness?
Speaker A:I want what someone else has, so therefore I'm jealous.
Speaker A:Okay, so let's say someone pulls into the parking lot today with the vehicle that I've always wanted, and I see them pulling the.
Speaker A:And I'm like, man, I wanted that.
Speaker A:How did they afford that?
Speaker A:How did they.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:And it's that that jealousy I want what they have is based in selfishness.
Speaker A:Covetousness.
Speaker A:I want what they have.
Speaker A:I don't have it.
Speaker A:I'm jealous.
Speaker A:That's sinful.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We must reject that.
Speaker A:And most of the time when we are acting in jealousy, it's in that route.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I'm mad that they have that.
Speaker A:I'm jealous of them.
Speaker A:It's based.
Speaker A:It's rooted in covetousness.
Speaker A:But godly jealousy is not based in covetousness.
Speaker A:Godly jealousy is based in the fact that God is the recipient of our desire.
Speaker A:We're jealous for God.
Speaker A:We're jealous in righteousness.
Speaker A:Let me use this as an example.
Speaker A:God has told me that I am to stay faithful to my wife.
Speaker A:God has told me that I love one woman for eternity.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I love my wife.
Speaker A:And I think, biblically speaking, that she is supposed to love me.
Speaker A:And let's say, for example, I don't go around and go, I don't care who my wife loves, right?
Speaker A:Whatever.
Speaker A:She wants to go around and love other people, that's fine.
Speaker A:Love other men, whatever.
Speaker A:No, that's what's called.
Speaker A:There can be selfish jealousy in that.
Speaker A:But the godly jealousy would be, no.
Speaker A:God has ordained this marriage.
Speaker A:There's a covenant between God and man.
Speaker A:There's a covenant between man and wife.
Speaker A:We are now one flesh.
Speaker A:And my jealousy is for good in that case.
Speaker A:And so what Paul is saying here is he's like, I'm jealous over you.
Speaker A:Now, why is he jealous over them?
Speaker A:Because they were basically marrying another way of thinking.
Speaker A:They were going another route.
Speaker A:They were believing in the false teaching.
Speaker A:And so he's like, I'm jealous over you.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because my desire is that God is a recipient of your love.
Speaker A:That the love of his word, the love of his ways, the love of his work.
Speaker A:And so godly jealousy is this.
Speaker A:I'm jealous over the right thing.
Speaker A:I'm jealous over righteousness I'm just going to be honest with you.
Speaker A:If there's a person who came into our church and started teaching false teaching and they were telling all of you that you should believe a certain thing that's outside of Scripture, I'm going to be jealous over that.
Speaker A:I am going to fight for that.
Speaker A:I'm not going to stand for the fact that, hey, we've been sitting here for years talking about the importance of the Gospel and someone comes in and says, well, you can work your way to heaven.
Speaker A:No way.
Speaker A:We're not going to stand for that.
Speaker A:And I hope you understand that's godly jealousy.
Speaker A:That's the type of jealousy that Paul is talking about.
Speaker A:Here we see that God is a jealous God.
Speaker A:Exodus chapter 20.
Speaker A:Exodus, chapter 20.
Speaker A:Most of you know this passage of scripture.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's God speaking about these, what we call the Ten Commandments.
Speaker A:But this shows God's heart.
Speaker A:Exodus chapter 20, verse 5.
Speaker A:It says, Thou shalt not bow down.
Speaker A:Down thyself to them, nor serve them.
Speaker A:Talking about the false gods.
Speaker A:For I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
Speaker A:And so what we can see here in this case is that God is a jealous God for the right reasons.
Speaker A:And so God is jealous in a godly jealousy.
Speaker A:So it's okay for us to be jealous with a godly jealousy as Paul is here in this passage.
Speaker A:Another passage of Scripture that speaks of God's righteous jealousy.
Speaker A:His godly jealousy would be Psalm 78.
Speaker A:Psalm 78, verse 58.
Speaker A:And you can jot these down if you'd like for another time if you want to go back to these.
Speaker A:If someone tells you, well, God isn't a jealous God.
Speaker A:Or right here.
Speaker A:These are the passages of Scripture along with many others that speak of God's righteous jealousy.
Speaker A:Psalm 78, verse 58 speak of the same concept.
Speaker A:Here says this.
Speaker A:For they provoked him to anger with their high places.
Speaker A:Their high places would be the places that they worship the false gods.
Speaker A:Okay, He.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:They provoked him with their high ang.
Speaker A:High places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images, their.
Speaker A:Their idols.
Speaker A:So God was moved with righteous anger in jealousy for their hearts.
Speaker A:God wants our hearts.
Speaker A:So therefore we should have the heart of God.
Speaker A:Meaning we want God's people to have their hearts set on the things of God, not in false teaching.
Speaker A:So that's what verse two is talking about.
Speaker A:Paul says, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.
Speaker A:Why he likens this type of loyalty to God, to the marriage relationship.
Speaker A:He says this for I have espoused you or betrothed you or basically engaged you into a relationship, as it says here, to one husband.
Speaker A:Who's the husband?
Speaker A:God, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Speaker A:Meaning this.
Speaker A:Paul says, I've taught you about the one God.
Speaker A:I've, I've espoused you to one God.
Speaker A:Therefore we want you to be pure so that when you stand before Christ, you can stand there as a pure virgin.
Speaker A:That, that, that you have not allowed yourself to drift into spiritual adultery.
Speaker A:That's the relationship that he brings into this picture.
Speaker A:He says, guys, you're being unfaithful to your Lord.
Speaker A:You're being unfaithful to the bridegroom.
Speaker A:The Bible says that we as the church are the bride of Christ, therefore we should be loyal to our groom.
Speaker A:One day there's going to be the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Speaker A:We want to be loyal to the one who has promised himself to us.
Speaker A:And that's what Paul is talking about here.
Speaker A:He's reminding them that just as we would be repulsed as a spouse is unfaithful to another spouse, so we should be repulsed in the fact that we go after anyone else outside of God.
Speaker A:He says, that's, that's, that's terrible.
Speaker A:I, I, I have, he, he's basically saying this.
Speaker A:I've brought you together with God.
Speaker A:I've, I've led you to God through Jesus Christ and you should be faithful to him.
Speaker A:Paul likens it to the marriage relationship.
Speaker A:And so it, it, it's been said this, that godly jealousy is love in action, not covetousness in action.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Selfish, sinful jealousy is covetousness in action.
Speaker A:Godly jealousy is love in action.
Speaker A:I love you enough in Christ to be jealous of you, not I love myself, and that's why I'm jealous.
Speaker A:And so that's the contrast between godly jealousy and sinful jealousy.
Speaker A:And so Paul says, I'm jealous over you.
Speaker A:This isn't a sin.
Speaker A:Paul is saying, I'm doing this in the righteousness because I love the Lord and I want your heart to be set on Christ.
Speaker A:I want your heart to be set on the one that has saved you.
Speaker A:So what does it look like here?
Speaker A:It looks like loyalty to God.
Speaker A:Loyalty to God means loyalty to Christ.
Speaker A:Loyalty to Christ means loyalty to the Spirit and loyalty to God.
Speaker A:Christ in the Spirit means loyalty to the Gospel.
Speaker A:I want you to see verse three.
Speaker A:He says, but I Fear, there's concern in his heart, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve or deceived Eve.
Speaker A:Now, now he's gonna talk to them about a story that they're familiar with, the story of Satan coming in the garden and deceiving Eve to be unfaithful to God.
Speaker A:You guys all know the story.
Speaker A:He says, I'm concerned that you will be tricked into believing a different route, a different teaching.
Speaker A:And so he says, I'm concerned that you are being misled by these false teachers.
Speaker A:Through what?
Speaker A:Through his subtlety.
Speaker A:When, when Satan works in subverting the truth, he works in a very subtle way.
Speaker A:In most cases, Satan doesn't come out now and say, hey, look, here's the temptation, here's what's going to happen.
Speaker A:Here's all the problems that you're going to face with this.
Speaker A:Here's all the issues and the destruction that's going to come with this sin.
Speaker A:No, Satan works in a very mysterious way, and that is a way of deception, okay?
Speaker A:He works in a way of subverting the truth.
Speaker A:Subverting the truth essentially means this.
Speaker A:He's going to try to come in unawares.
Speaker A:He's going to try to come in, in a place where you would think that it's a good thing.
Speaker A:And so he says, hey, look, you might think that these false teachers are good.
Speaker A:They might be coming to you with, with fancy speech, they might be coming to you with credentials, they might be coming to you with numbers.
Speaker A:They might be coming to you with all these things, but they're coming to you as Satan came to you.
Speaker A:Satan came to Eve in the garden with subtlety.
Speaker A:And so Satan's deception comes this way.
Speaker A:He subtly subverts the truth.
Speaker A:He always wants to question the truth.
Speaker A:And that's what Paul is fighting for.
Speaker A:He says, the truth.
Speaker A:So if we want to be loyal to the truth, who are we loyal to?
Speaker A:We're loyal to God, we're loyal to Christ, we're loyal to the Spirit, we're loyal to the Gospel.
Speaker A:He talks all about this.
Speaker A:He says, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is Christ.
Speaker A:So he says, look, you're being deceived.
Speaker A:How are you being deceived?
Speaker A:Satan is corrupting your mind to think differently about Christ.
Speaker A:Now, we don't know exactly what these false teachers were teaching, but most likely because of the Corinthian culture in context, they were preaching against Jesus being humbled.
Speaker A:They were preaching against Jesus being meek, they were preaching against a Jesus that would go to the cross and sacrifice himself.
Speaker A:And so therefore they were preaching a different Jesus.
Speaker A:And so if we want to be loyal to God, we must be loyal to who Jesus is.
Speaker A:According to Scripture, Jesus said in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker A:No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Speaker A:It's through Jesus that we can understand God.
Speaker A:And therefore to be loyal to God the Father, we must be loyal to his Son.
Speaker A:And so therefore there's loyalty to God that is connected to the loyalty of Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:And he says, look, your minds, your thoughts are being corrupted from the simplicity that is Christ.
Speaker A:What is he talking about here that Christ is a simple man?
Speaker A:Well, it's the idea of the simplicity of the truth of Christ.
Speaker A:Another way that you could say it is singleness of mind.
Speaker A:He's saying that you should have singleness of mind towards the truth of who Christ is.
Speaker A:Don't be double minded, don't be split in what you think.
Speaker A:Don't allow the world to infuse into your belief of Christ their thoughts.
Speaker A:Well, it could be Jesus plus this, it could be this type of Jesus.
Speaker A:You've even heard people say this maybe.
Speaker A:Well my Jesus wouldn't do those types of things.
Speaker A:That's the Jesus that, that they have created, but that's not the Jesus of scripture.
Speaker A:So Paul says, hey look, you need to protect what you believe about Christ and it should be in single mindedness towards what you know from what you have been taught.
Speaker A:For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus.
Speaker A:This is a scary passage of scripture because a lot of people think, well, if people are saying the name of Jesus, it must be good teaching.
Speaker A:No, that's not what he says here.
Speaker A:Because he says that people can come and preach another Jesus, another representation of who Jesus is.
Speaker A:That's what he's saying here.
Speaker A:And if you know anything about world religions right now, they all have a belief system about Jesus, but it's not about the Jesus of the Bible.
Speaker A:It's, it's not a proper view of who Jesus is.
Speaker A:I'm not going to get down every rabbit trail of every false teaching about Jesus, but let me say it this way, like they teach people with counterfeit money, they don't teach you all the counterfeits.
Speaker A:They teach you the one truth.
Speaker A:And anything that doesn't match up to that truth is not the true Jesus.
Speaker A:And so if you have anyone coming in and teaching you a different Jesus outside of what you know through the Word of God, then that's a false Jesus.
Speaker A:That's a different Jesus.
Speaker A:And so he says, verse 4.
Speaker A:For if he that cometh, talking about a false teacher, for he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached.
Speaker A:Now, I want to stop here right now.
Speaker A:Remember, a lot of people say, what, what, what are you talking about?
Speaker A:When Paul says he's referring to the Scriptures, he didn't have the New Testament, I realized that he's referring to the Old Testament.
Speaker A:But you have to remember Paul has apostolic authority at this point.
Speaker A:The word of God has not been completed yet.
Speaker A:And so therefore what he preaches is, is the gospel, is the truth.
Speaker A:Now, if I got up here today and said, well, you know what?
Speaker A:What I say is the Gospel, and I don't care what the word of God says, that would be wrong.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because we have the complete canon of Scripture.
Speaker A:And so for me to preach the same message to you would be this.
Speaker A:If someone is preaching something outside of what the word of God, the Bible says about Jesus, it's a false teaching.
Speaker A:What Paul is saying is this.
Speaker A:If someone is preaching something to you different than what we have preached to you as the apostles, it's false teaching.
Speaker A:So, so he mentions Jesus here, but then he says this, or if ye receive another spirit.
Speaker A:So what's happening is people are saying there's another spirit out there, a different a, a different Holy Spirit, so to speak.
Speaker A:And the Bible says the test all spirits.
Speaker A:And so what we can see here is that there can be a different belief system on Jesus, a different belief system on receiving of the Spirit which ye have not received.
Speaker A:This is a different spirit.
Speaker A:This is a spirit that is contradictory to what we have taught you.
Speaker A:This is a spirit that is contradictory to the word of God.
Speaker A:So it's loyalty to God, it's loyalty to Christ, it's loyalty to the Spirit.
Speaker A:When does that mean?
Speaker A:Well, let me use this as an analogy.
Speaker A:Someone comes up and they say, well, you know what?
Speaker A:I think it was the spirit of God that led me to do this sin against somebody else.
Speaker A:No, that is not the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God will not contradict the word of God.
Speaker A:The spirit of God will always lead you to what the word of God says.
Speaker A:There will always be an agreement there.
Speaker A:And so you say, well, you know, I think it was the spirit of God that led me to lose my cool with that person.
Speaker A:No, that was your flesh.
Speaker A:That was another spirit.
Speaker A:Or that was something that came from another realm that was evil.
Speaker A:The Bible says that nothing that God leads us to do will contradict his word.
Speaker A:And so the Bible says, you can either walk in the spirit or you can walk in the flesh.
Speaker A:And so he says, test that if someone is preaching a different spirit or receiving another spirit which you have not received, or as he says here, another gospel which you have not accepted, he might well bear with him.
Speaker A:What do you say?
Speaker A:What is he saying here?
Speaker A:He's saying this problem isn't.
Speaker A:I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Speaker A:But the problem isn't the false teaching.
Speaker A:There will always be false teachers.
Speaker A:Let me tell you that.
Speaker A:There were false teachers from the very beginning, and there will be false teachers to the very end.
Speaker A:So the problem isn't just, hey, like, we need to avoid all false teachers.
Speaker A:We need to get ourselves into a vacuum and we never need to go out and we need to stay here and we only listen to one person.
Speaker A:That's where you get into problems.
Speaker A:Okay, so.
Speaker A:So it's not about avoiding false teachers as much as receiving them and condoning them and tolerating them.
Speaker A:And so I want you to see here.
Speaker A:What is he saying?
Speaker A:He says, hey, some of you are tolerating or bearing with these false teachers.
Speaker A:You can't avoid false teaching.
Speaker A:All you can do is reject it.
Speaker A:So there's that rejection of false teaching and there's the receiving of false teaching.
Speaker A:And I would encourage you to reject false teaching if it comes your way.
Speaker A:So there's the toleration of false teaching that Paul is preaching against here.
Speaker A:So who is the true Jesus?
Speaker A:Well, loyalty to God is a loyalty to Christ and his word.
Speaker A:John 14:6.
Speaker A:I've already quoted it.
Speaker A:Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker A:No one can come to the Father but through Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:So the true Jesus is the only way.
Speaker A:The true Jesus is God.
Speaker A:God in the flesh.
Speaker A:The Bible says that in John chapter one, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Speaker A:But the Bible says also in John chapter one, that the word Jesus is eternal.
Speaker A:Jesus has always been.
Speaker A:He's not a created being.
Speaker A:A lot of people will teach that Jesus is a creation of God the Father.
Speaker A:And he's a good prophet.
Speaker A:He's actually maybe even miraculous.
Speaker A:He did all these wonderful things, but he's not eternal.
Speaker A:No, we have to believe that Jesus is God.
Speaker A:Jesus is one of the persons of the Trinity.
Speaker A:He's eternal.
Speaker A:And so therefore we see that a loyalty to God is a loyalty to Christ and to his Word.
Speaker A:Jesus has said many things and a lot of people will say this.
Speaker A:I will, I won't Maybe you've never heard this, but I've heard people say Jesus never claimed to be God.
Speaker A:Jesus never claimed he was the only way.
Speaker A:That's a false teaching.
Speaker A:Jesus.
Speaker A:I can sit here all day and tell you times where Jesus claimed that he was the I am the same I am that was mentioned in the book of Exodus.
Speaker A:Jesus says, I'm, I'm that one.
Speaker A:Jesus says, hey, he, he receives worship.
Speaker A:Jesus says that he is the way.
Speaker A:Jesus says that he is God.
Speaker A:And so therefore Jesus did claim to be the only way.
Speaker A:Jesus did claim to be God.
Speaker A:That is the true Jesus.
Speaker A:And so Satan lee Satan subtly subverts the Savior.
Speaker A:Jesus is always the attack.
Speaker A:God's authority is always the attack.
Speaker A:The truth of God's word is always the attack.
Speaker A:If you go back to Genesis chapter three, go back to Genesis chapter three in your minds with me or can turn there.
Speaker A:What did Satan do?
Speaker A:It says he.
Speaker A:He says that he came and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.
Speaker A:For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Speaker A:So Satan comes and he twists the truth of God and he questions the word of God.
Speaker A:Ye shall not surely die.
Speaker A:And that's what Satan does today.
Speaker A:Satan will always try to subvert, try to lie, try to twist the truth of God.
Speaker A:And so how does Satan in his most diabolical form try to twist the word of God?
Speaker A:By twisting who Jesus is.
Speaker A:Because Satan understands that Jesus is the only way.
Speaker A:So if Satan can attack the authority of Jesus, if Satan can attack the truth of Jesus, he can attack everything that we stand on.
Speaker A:And so there's a lot of people that are okay with saying, well, there's a big man upstairs that loves us.
Speaker A:There's a God out there that's bigger than us.
Speaker A:But the moment you start preaching about Jesus being the only way that Jesus is God, that's when people start to kind of have their feathers ruffled.
Speaker A:You want to offend someone, preach Jesus.
Speaker A:The Bible says that Jesus is a stumbling block.
Speaker A:To some.
Speaker A:He's the way of salvation for many.
Speaker A:But for many, he's a stumbling block because they get there and they can't go any further.
Speaker A:Look at, look at why, why the Pharisees hated Jesus.
Speaker A:They, they believed in God.
Speaker A:They didn't believe that Jesus was God.
Speaker A:And that was the biggest issue.
Speaker A:And so we go back to this idea of the true Jesus, folks.
Speaker A:If you have someone that you listen to in your life, if you have a book that you read that in any way questions the biblical Jesus, that's a false teaching.
Speaker A:Run away from that.
Speaker A:Take that out of your life.
Speaker A:Because Jesus is the core centerpiece of everything that we believe.
Speaker A:And it'll be subtle.
Speaker A:It'll be subtle, but the true Jesus must be preached and the true Jesus must be believed in.
Speaker A:And so we must be aware of the deception of the truth.
Speaker A:You, you always, I, I don't.
Speaker A:Now, I'm not saying be on edge all the time when it comes to everything, okay?
Speaker A:Don't, don't be Mr.
Speaker A:Skeptical about every little thing.
Speaker A:But the Bible does say be a berean and check what someone is preaching.
Speaker A:The Bible does say to be aware of false prophets.
Speaker A:The Bible actually promises that there will be people who slip into the church and try to mislead.
Speaker A:So what does that mean?
Speaker A:That means we should have antennas up.
Speaker A:We should know what the truth is so that we can identify the counterfeit.
Speaker A:You, you, you should have red flags if someone gets up.
Speaker A:You might not even know specifically why it's off.
Speaker A:But you know, that's not the Jesus that I know in scripture.
Speaker A:Not.
Speaker A:And I've heard a lot of people say, well, you know what?
Speaker A:Here it is, Pastor, I just was never taught that.
Speaker A:Okay, for example, you know what?
Speaker A:I've always been taught this, Pastor, I've always been taught that, you know, having let me use something like that's not super offensive.
Speaker A: I've always been taught that: Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:That's what you've been taught.
Speaker A:Maybe, but that's not right.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:You can have church at any time of the day.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A: one of those people, I think: Speaker A:Now, Pastor's not trying to change church services, but I'm just using that as an example.
Speaker A:But what I'm saying is this, just because you've been taught something, that doesn't mean that that's the gospel.
Speaker A:What it is is what does the Bible say?
Speaker A:What does the Bible say?
Speaker A:Well, I've always been told that Jesus did this.
Speaker A:I, I, I've always been told that this was.
Speaker A:Well, where did you get that from?
Speaker A:Well, I watched this movie back in the day and that's how they portrayed him.
Speaker A:And so that's why don't, okay, here's a bit big warning here.
Speaker A:Don't get your theology from Christian movies, okay?
Speaker A:I'm not against Christian movies or Christian TV shows, okay?
Speaker A:Watch them, enjoy them.
Speaker A:They're better than the things that are in this world.
Speaker A:But please, please don't base your Christian theology out of something that was an author's license to try to make it more creative, okay?
Speaker A:Just be cautious of that.
Speaker A:I love you in Christ, and I want to make sure that that is out there.
Speaker A:So I go back to say this.
Speaker A:We must be aware of the deception of the truth that's around us.
Speaker A:This leads our minds astray.
Speaker A:So the deception of the truth, whether it's open deception or very subtle deception, that deception will lead our minds astray from the will of God in our lives.
Speaker A:Go with me and see what it says there in verse number four.
Speaker A:Excuse me, verse number three.
Speaker A:He says, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Speaker A:Satan is trying to subvert.
Speaker A:He's trying to question God so that our minds can be set on the wrong things, so that our minds can be led astray from what God wants for us in our lives.
Speaker A:You say, well, I don't think Paul's really talking about that.
Speaker A:Look back just at chapter 10.
Speaker A:We just talked about this.
Speaker A:Thinking biblically, he says, casting down imaginations in every high thing, verse 5 of chapter 10, that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Speaker A:Paul says, it is what's in our minds that lead to what we do.
Speaker A:So therefore, we must think properly about God.
Speaker A:If the corruption comes in through our minds, it'll connect to our hearts, it'll connect to our loyalty, it'll connect to our actions.
Speaker A:And so prepare your minds.
Speaker A:Protect your minds with the word of God.
Speaker A:Allow yourself to ask God through prayer and, and, and say, lord, give me the wisdom, give me the protection, so that when false teachers come, I'm ready to reject that.
Speaker A:I'm ready to say, you know what?
Speaker A:This is the word of God.
Speaker A:And I don't care what you say about our culture because that, because anytime someone tries to question the word of God, the argument is this.
Speaker A:That's how it was back then.
Speaker A:Today's different.
Speaker A:So there's gotta be some kind of understanding of a change.
Speaker A:Well, folks, if we use that logic, everything in the Bible can just be thrown out, right?
Speaker A:Because we can argue anything.
Speaker A:Well, that's.
Speaker A:Most of the people today don't believe that.
Speaker A:So we don't need to believe that anymore, folks.
Speaker A:It's the word of God for a reason.
Speaker A:And, and so what we need to see is this.
Speaker A:You Know what?
Speaker A:There's gonna be people that come with very appealing, very convincing arguments to say that the Bible doesn't need to be trusted the way that it's written.
Speaker A:They're going to say, look, back then, you know, education was different.
Speaker A:And so therefore, now that we're very educated, we're able to understand things in a better way.
Speaker A:So therefore we don't need to believe it.
Speaker A:Those are people that were living in a world that was totally foreign to us.
Speaker A:Yes, that was very foreign to us.
Speaker A:But the truths that are in scripture don't change.
Speaker A:And so what we have to understand is that if the Bible says something, we can't allow someone to come in and try to undermine what the word of God says.
Speaker A:And so this will lead our minds astray from the will of God.
Speaker A:And really the truth is, is that we can be corrupted.
Speaker A:You would say, I, I can't be corrupted.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I, I'm strong, I'm strong willed.
Speaker A:Pastor, you don't know me well, you might be strong willed, but the Bible says that we can be corrupted by having a double mind.
Speaker A:If you, if you look at James chapter one, James chapter one, verse six talks about a, a man or anyone who is double minded.
Speaker A:So, so you might not say, oh, I'm against God, or, or you might not say, I'm opposed to what the pastor is preaching.
Speaker A:You, you might say, I'm, I'm not all for the, the satanic things.
Speaker A:I'm not, I'm not for believing everything the world gives me.
Speaker A:That's not what James chapter one, verse six says.
Speaker A:James chapter one, verse six says, but let him ask in faith, talking about wisdom.
Speaker A:Verse 5 says, if you lack wisdom, ask God, he's going to give it to you.
Speaker A:But verse 6 says, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
Speaker A:For he that wavereth, meaning going back and forth in faith, putting my faith in the things of this world, putting my faith in myself, and then putting my faith in God sometimes that, that's a double minded man.
Speaker A:It says verse 6.
Speaker A:For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.
Speaker A:For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Speaker A:A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
Speaker A:A double minded man is a simply a person who puts their faith in God sometimes for some things, and puts their faith in the world in some areas, and then tries to bring those two together and try to bridge both of those divides.
Speaker A:It says, no, that's a wave in the sea.
Speaker A:Pass to and fro.
Speaker A:Let them not receive anything of the Lord.
Speaker A:They don't, don't expect to receive anything from God, whether it be wisdom or, or power or strength.
Speaker A:If you're putting your faith in the things of this world, he says that is a double minded man and is unstable in all of his ways.
Speaker A:And so therefore someone can be corrupted by simply just putting their faith in something else outside of the complete truth of God.
Speaker A:And so our loyalty can maybe be on the outside.
Speaker A:Very clear.
Speaker A:Hey look, that's a loyal person.
Speaker A:They're in their place every week.
Speaker A:They're, they're in a ministry, they're doing wonderful things for the Lord.
Speaker A:But yet in their minds it could be double minded because they're trusting in the things of this world to be the things that they are trusting in when it comes to their, their salvation, their faith, their provisions, their power, their healing, whatever it is.
Speaker A:And so he says, hey, be careful that you don't leave the simplicity that is in Christ, the single mindedness that is in Christ, that is the true Jesus.
Speaker A:And so simplicity, it's singleness of mind, it's being locked in on Jesus, being focused on his word, being focused on his ways, being focused on his work.
Speaker A:And that is what's tied to the gospel, right?
Speaker A:We, we are loyal to Jesus, we're loyal to the Spirit, we're loyal to the Father, and we're loyal to His Word, the Gospel.
Speaker A:And so another Jesus can be preached, another Spirit can be preached, another Gospel can be preached.
Speaker A:And the problem wasn't that these false teachers had come in.
Speaker A:The problem was that these people in Corinth had put up with them.
Speaker A:The question that I would ask you today is are we willing to stand up against false teaching or are we going to tolerate false teaching?
Speaker A:You would say, bless God, we're not going to tolerate false teaching from our pulpit, Pastor.
Speaker A:We're going to watch every word that you say.
Speaker A:Folks, I'm going to tell you that you get preached at more than just this pulpit.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Monday morning you're going to get preached at in a lot of different ways.
Speaker A:You're going to get preached at by what you take in, in entertainment.
Speaker A:You're going to get preached at.
Speaker A:What you're going to get, you know, what you take in at work, you're going to get preached at.
Speaker A:And what you take in, what you read, a podcast, you're going to, it's being engulfed into your mind, okay?
Speaker A:Your mind is being just covered with all these things.
Speaker A:And what I would say is this just as Much as you are vigilant and what is being preached from this pulpit, and you should be okay, if a preacher gets up here, me or someone else that's preaching something contrary to this Bible, first of all, you contend for the faith.
Speaker A:And if that doesn't work, you.
Speaker A:You leave, okay?
Speaker A:The moment that the word of God is not being lifted up, only is, is the time where you say, that's not for me.
Speaker A:But what I would say is this.
Speaker A:Are you going to have that same vigilance?
Speaker A:Am I going to have that same vigilance when it comes to what I'm taking in throughout the week?
Speaker A:Am I going to be willing to put that person that I'm listening to Monday through Friday to the same test that I'm putting to my preacher?
Speaker A:And you say, well, he's not preaching to me, folks, if there is any talk about anything, it's being preached to you.
Speaker A:A certain philosophy, a certain thought process.
Speaker A:If something's coming to you outside of scripture and you take that as scripture, that's receiving preaching in a false way.
Speaker A:And so therefore, I would say this.
Speaker A:Be vigilant, not just on Sunday mornings, but be vigilant throughout all of your day.
Speaker A:Be vigilant about what your children are taking in.
Speaker A:Be vigilant about what you are taking in.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What are you allowing yourself to go to and trust in?
Speaker A:You know what, folks?
Speaker A:It's not always what we go to.
Speaker A:When things are going well.
Speaker A:When things are going well in our life, sometimes it's tempting to say, well, you know what?
Speaker A:God's blessing me, everything's good.
Speaker A:But where do we run when trouble comes?
Speaker A:Because that's our true character.
Speaker A:Our.
Speaker A:Our true heart will be manifested when we're put under the pressure.
Speaker A:What's they.
Speaker A:They've said it this way.
Speaker A:What's ever really inside of you when you're squished, that's what's gonna come out.
Speaker A:Okay, so what's really in there?
Speaker A:When you're put to the test, what's really there?
Speaker A:What are you really trusting in?
Speaker A:What am I really trusting in?
Speaker A:When the rubber meets the road, Folks, I'm.
Speaker A:I love you guys.
Speaker A:I'm done playing games with church.
Speaker A:Church is not a social club, okay?
Speaker A:We can have social activities here at church.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:We should be social part of fellowshipping.
Speaker A:But if it stops there and we miss out on what the purpose is, folks, we're here.
Speaker A:We're the pillar and ground of truth.
Speaker A:We are to contend for the faith.
Speaker A:We have a great commission to go.
Speaker A:If we're not willing to go for the gospel.
Speaker A:What are we doing?
Speaker A:You, you can, you can find a social connection anywhere in this world.
Speaker A:Go down to the local pool hall and you can play pool with people and you can, you can indulge in all those things that they do.
Speaker A:Okay, you can go to a local place and have that.
Speaker A:Folks, the church is a distinct body of believers different than the world to come together and fellowship.
Speaker A:They come together and study.
Speaker A:They come together and to fight for the truth of God.
Speaker A:And Paul is saying, guys, you're just playing a game.
Speaker A:You're playing the Corinthian game.
Speaker A:The Corinthian game is just to come together and to go back to that pagan ritual.
Speaker A:And he says, don't do that anymore.
Speaker A:He says, don't tolerate this, folks.
Speaker A:We should be discontent with false teaching.
Speaker A:Don't tolerate that.
Speaker A:There's some things that we should tolerate.
Speaker A:Tolerate your brother in Christ.
Speaker A:Sometimes we gotta have grace, sometimes we gotta have mercy.
Speaker A:The Bible says to, to be patient with them.
Speaker A:But, but false teaching is something that we have to be careful of.
Speaker A:And Paul is defending himself.
Speaker A:He says, no, we.
Speaker A:I'm the one that's preaching the truth.
Speaker A:So application is this.
Speaker A:Examine our loyalty to God.
Speaker A:Well, I'm loyal.
Speaker A:How, how are you loyal?
Speaker A:Okay, you say, well, I'm, I'm, I'm.
Speaker A:To the best of my ability, I'm loyal.
Speaker A:Okay, well, none of us are going to be perfectly loyal.
Speaker A:I, I get that.
Speaker A:None of us are gonna be perfectly faithful.
Speaker A:And that's the beauty of it.
Speaker A:The beauty is, is that when we fall short, God is better.
Speaker A:His mercy is more.
Speaker A:But it's, it's our desire.
Speaker A:God is always concerned about our desire.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Love your, Love your Lord, thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Speaker A:Okay, so what does that mean?
Speaker A:That means God wants our heart.
Speaker A:He doesn't want only our actions.
Speaker A:Because what can happen is this.
Speaker A:We can all go through the motions.
Speaker A:We, we.
Speaker A:Pastor said to show up at, you know, Saturday at 9:00 to go do this.
Speaker A:I'm here 9:00, but my heart's not here.
Speaker A:I'm in church, but my heart's not here.
Speaker A:I have a ministry, but my heart's not here.
Speaker A:I'm reading my Bible, but my heart's not here.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:And this is a true question.
Speaker A:I want you to think about this morning.
Speaker A:Is God pleased if we just go through the motions and have no love there?
Speaker A:I don't, I don't think so.
Speaker A:Because that's not worried about the actions as much as he's worried about the hearts.
Speaker A:What, what, what if I just said, well, you know, I, I have to, I, I, I have to give my wife a birthday present and, and, and I've got to get her an anniversary present.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:If I don't, there's gonna be problems.
Speaker A:I'm gonna go do that.
Speaker A:I'm just gonna robotically do it.
Speaker A:Okay, here it is.
Speaker A:Same thing you get every year.
Speaker A:You know, whatever.
Speaker A:My wife's gonna really question whether or not my heart is committed to her.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's the same thing with the Lord.
Speaker A:And sometimes we think that we do.
Speaker A:We, hey, we check our box.
Speaker A:I checked my Baptist box today.
Speaker A:I did it, I did my demotions, I'm good now.
Speaker A:I can go do whatever I wanna do.
Speaker A:God wants more than your devotions.
Speaker A:God wants you to be devoted to him single mindedly all day, every day.
Speaker A:That's where he wants your heart.
Speaker A:So the question is, is like, how am I loyal to God?
Speaker A:How am I demonstrating my loyalty and love to Him?
Speaker A:And by the way, it's loyalty and love because if you love someone, you're gonna do things for them.
Speaker A:You love someone, you're gonna spend time with them.
Speaker A:No one has to twist my arm to spend time with the people that I love.
Speaker A:And so that's the idea for us is like, okay, I know I'm not gonna be perfectly loyal, but what are some steps that I'm taking in my life to try to demonstrate my faithfulness to God as He's been perfectly faithful to me.
Speaker A:If you ever doubt whether or not you want to be faithful to God, go back to what he's done for you.
Speaker A:We have to be reminded of that.
Speaker A:He went to the cross.
Speaker A:He, he had you in mind as he went to the cross.
Speaker A:For all have sinned to come short of the glory of God.
Speaker A:That's me.
Speaker A:Romans 5:8.
Speaker A:But God commended or demonstrated his love towards us.
Speaker A:And that while we were yet sinners, that's me.
Speaker A:Christ died for us.
Speaker A:He knew that I would sin, he knew that I would be disloyal.
Speaker A:But yet he was faithful to me.
Speaker A:Died for me.
Speaker A:He died for you.
Speaker A:And so therefore we gotta go back to that.
Speaker A:And so the second part of this would be, am I putting myself in a place where I am on guard against false teaching?
Speaker A:Beware of false teaching that leads our hearts and minds astray.
Speaker A:It's gonna come in secretively.
Speaker A:I always tell our, our church, you know, when we were going through the book of Jude, a false teacher is not going to come in with a sign around his neck that says, false teacher, beware.
Speaker A:It's going to come in in different ways.
Speaker A:The Bible says, wolves in sheep's clothing.
Speaker A:Beware of false teaching.
Speaker A:You say what?
Speaker A:That's a lot for me.
Speaker A:I'm scared now.
Speaker A:Maybe the person I'm listening to is a false teacher.
Speaker A:A false teacher will never preach the word of God.
Speaker A:False teacher will always go astray.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So it's an easy fix.
Speaker A:You just test it to the word of God, test it to the word of God, and then lastly, here.
Speaker A:Remain steadfast in singleness of mind, that simplicity and devotion.
Speaker A:Is my mind fixed on Christ, or is it fixed on Christ and about a thousand other things?
Speaker A:You say, well, Pastor, you don't know my job.
Speaker A:I gotta be fixed on about a thousand different things.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:When it comes to your hope, when it comes to your salvation, when it comes to understanding your standing before God and your identity, when it.
Speaker A:What's your identity?
Speaker A:Someone comes up and asks me, you know, who are you?
Speaker A:What do we do?
Speaker A:What do we do?
Speaker A:Most of the time, we.
Speaker A:Well, as men, sometimes we say, what we do for a living.
Speaker A:Well, I'm a so and so.
Speaker A:And I do this sometimes.
Speaker A:You know, a wife is asked or a mother's asked, who are you?
Speaker A:I'm a mom to these kids, right?
Speaker A:You see where their heart is.
Speaker A:You see where their.
Speaker A:Their desire is.
Speaker A:And so someone came up to me and asked me, well, who are you?
Speaker A:What my answer should be.
Speaker A:I'm a child of the Lord.
Speaker A:Not, hey, I'm pastor of Middletown Baptist Church.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I, you know, have a lot of these things that I do.
Speaker A:And I did this.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:What did Paul say?
Speaker A:Paul didn't say at the very beginning, I'm super apostle.
Speaker A:He says, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ, a prisoner.
Speaker A:Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:That's who we are.
Speaker A:We're.
Speaker A:We're.
Speaker A:We're linked to him in our identity.
Speaker A:And so are we going to be willing to commit ourselves to the best of our ability to be in singleness of mind towards our devotion to Him?
Speaker A:Now you would say, is that even possible, Pastor?
Speaker A:Not in our own strength, it's not.
Speaker A:In our own strength.
Speaker A:So what do we do?
Speaker A:We ask God.
Speaker A:James, chapter one.
Speaker A:If you lack wisdom on how to do anything that he's called you to do, ask him.
Speaker A:Ask the Lord to give you the strength.
Speaker A:Live in the spirit.
Speaker A:Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6.
Speaker A:It says, Be anxious or be careful for nothing.
Speaker A:But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.
Speaker A:Let your requests be made known unto God.
Speaker A:Meaning this.
Speaker A:You could have a reason to be anxious about everything or you could bring everything to him in prayer.
Speaker A:So I would say one of the practical steps that you can take in your loyalty to God is, is by creating a communication relationship with Him.
Speaker A:How do you talk to God?
Speaker A:Pray?
Speaker A:How do you hear from God His Word?
Speaker A:How do you spend time with Him?
Speaker A:By, by serving him, by, by obeying His Word, having a love for His Word, his ways and his work.
Speaker A:Folks, I know that there's some challenging stuff here this morning.
Speaker A:I know that I've, I've, I've tried not to pull any punches, but I want to let you know that I'm preaching to myself up here.
Speaker A:And every single time I hit one of those points, I feel that.
Speaker A:I feel that dagger in my chest too, convicting me.
Speaker A:I'm there.
Speaker A:I feel it because so often my love and my desire goes somewhere else.
Speaker A:Folks, are we willing to say, you know what, I want to die to that?
Speaker A:I want to be single minded towards the Lord.
Speaker A:Paul warned them.
Speaker A:He says, hey, look, it's going to corrupt your minds.
Speaker A:And you know, things that can be good if they become first can be bad.
Speaker A:You know what I mean by that?
Speaker A:Well, Pastor, you know, I'm not doing anything bad.
Speaker A:I'm just, I'm working a lot.
Speaker A:If my good work takes place before my relationship with Christ, my work has now become something bad.
Speaker A:If, if, if.
Speaker A:Well, you know what?
Speaker A:Well, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to do that.
Speaker A:Folks, it's not about trying.
Speaker A:We could try all day.
Speaker A:It's about relying on the Lord.
Speaker A:The more we die to our own work, the more we see his work in our life.
Speaker A:Folks, just rely on him, trust in Him.
Speaker A:He gives you that peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Speaker A:You can find that too when it comes to this struggle that we fight.
Speaker A:Now Paul's going to come back and he's going to talk about in the next verse, verse five, he's going to start.
Speaker A:This idea of a false prophet is going to be one way, a true prophet is going to be another way.
Speaker A:And he speaks of humility.
Speaker A:The Bible says that anyone that's preparing and proclaiming the word of God properly will not take a place of pride, will take a place of humility.
Speaker A:And so that's what he's going to address next.
Speaker A:But the action items today would be, where is our loyalty to God?
Speaker A:Is it a loyalty in have to do this?
Speaker A:Or is it a loyalty of love?
Speaker A:You think about his love for you.
Speaker A:It's much easier to rest in that love and to reciprocate that love by the way that we obey Him.
Speaker A:So let's go ahead and pray.
Speaker A:Every head bowed, every eye closed.
Speaker A:I'm asking you to stand, too, if you're able to.
Speaker A:If not, that's okay.
Speaker A:We're gonna have a time of reflection, a time of invitation.
Speaker A:If you have something that God has been speaking to you here this morning.
Speaker A:I know it's been a heavy, heavy, heavy message in the concept of a challenge.
Speaker A:We never really want to talk about false teachers because the fear is that maybe we're being misled by a false teaching.
Speaker A:But the beauty of all of this is that when we fall short, and we will, The Bible says, 1 John, chapter 1, verse 9, if we confess.
Speaker A:Confess just means to agree with.
Speaker A:Agree with God.
Speaker A:If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Speaker A:The Bible says, come back to him and just admit where you've fallen short.
Speaker A:He guess what?
Speaker A:He already knows where you've fallen short.
Speaker A:So just admit to that, the fact that you agree with him on what you're doing, and say, you know what, I've fallen short here in my loyalty.
Speaker A:I know I'm not perfect, but I'm far from it and I've been desiring other things.
Speaker A:Maybe it's time for you just to realign to him and confess that to him.
Speaker A:Say, lord, I'm.
Speaker A:You don't have to confess it to me.
Speaker A:I'm not a priest.
Speaker A:I'm not some sort of person that can grant forgiveness in your life.
Speaker A:It's only a relationship with God and your fellowship with him that can bring you back to a place of restoration.
Speaker A:And I would encourage you to think about that here this morning.
Speaker A:Where is your loyalty?
Speaker A:Is it a loyalty in duty, or is it a loyalty in love?
Speaker A:I think about this quite frequently, and I hope that you do, too.
Speaker A:Why am I doing what I'm doing for the Lord if I'm doing something great?
Speaker A:But the better question is, is why am I doing what I'm doing for the Lord?
Speaker A:Is it because of what he has done for me?
Speaker A:Or is it because I'm trying to earn something or get some kind of acclaim or praise?
Speaker A:And so the thought process for me this morning and the challenge that I would have for you is that, are we willing to examine our loyalty?
Speaker A:Are we willing to commit ourselves to fighting against false teaching and leading our hearts and minds astray.
Speaker A:And are we willing to remain steadfast in our singleness of mind, the simplicity that is Christ?
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:The Gospel is not that complicated.
Speaker A:It is putting our faith in Jesus and Jesus alone to save us.
Speaker A:And then that's now where it ends.
Speaker A:Because a believer does not stop resting in the Gospel the moment they are saved.
Speaker A:Now we're resting in the Gospel to give us the hope and the strength and the power and the provisions to do everything that God has called us to do in our life until we get home one day and we look our Savior face to face and he says, well done thou good and faithful servant.
Speaker A:That's why we rest in the Gospel.
Speaker A:That's why we proclaim the gospel.
Speaker A:That's why we live in the Gospel in every way.
Speaker A:Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives.
Speaker A:Lord, if there's someone here today that needs you as Savior, I pray that today can be the day of salvation, that they can trust in your word and your way and your work to know what it means to have everlasting life.
Speaker A:We thank you and we love you.
Speaker A:In Jesus name, Amen.
Speaker A:As the music plays if you need Jesus this morning as your Savior, come forward.
Speaker A:We got some folks up here.
Speaker A:If not, if you want to commit yourself to loyalty to him, if you want to commit yourself to living that life single minded towards Christ, I encourage you to come forward and commit that to him here this morning.
Speaker A:Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
Speaker A:I hope that this sermon has been a blessing blessing for you.
Speaker A:You would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
Speaker A:You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:God Bless.
Speaker A:Have a wonderful day.
